Aug 252022
 
 August 25, 2022  Posted by at 8:30 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Felix Vallotton On the beach 1899

 

Geopolitical Tectonic Plates Shifting, Six Months On (Escobar)
Putin Bets Winter Gas Chokehold Will Yield Ukraine Peace – On His Terms (R.)
Nord Stream 2 ‘Only Sensible’ Solution To Gas Crisis – German MP
Belgian PM: “Next 5-10 Winters Will Be Difficult” As Energy Crisis Worsens (ZH)
Exploding Prices Will Impact Trade Balance More Than 1970s Oil Shocks (K.)
The Electricity Subsidy Shock (K.)
‘Weary’ Europeans Must ‘Bear Consequences’ Of Ukraine War: EU’s Borrell (ZH)
Macron Warns Of ‘End Of Abundance’ (RT)
‘Months Or Years’ Before US Arms Reach Ukraine – Media (RT)
FBI Mar-a-Lago Warrant Had ‘No Legal Basis’: Constitutional Lawyers (ET)
Biden White House Facilitated FBI Mar-A-Lago Raid (JTN)
FBI Brass Warned Agents Off Hunter Biden Laptop Due To 2020 Election (NYP)
DeSantis Says ‘Little Elf’ Fauci Should Be ‘Chucked Across The Potomac’ (RT)

 

 

Biden’s student debt cancellation plan, estimated at $300-$400 billion, has nothing for those who didn’t want that kind of debt. Or for those who did, and worked 2-3 jobs to pay it off ASAP. Or anyone else who’s in dire straits. But the colleges are sure sitting pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glenn Beck

 

 


Slaughterhouse. Günther, where’s your mask? Mr. Butcher, Günther’s not wearing a mask!

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The advances along the enormous 1,800-mile front are relentless, highly systematic and inserted in a Greater Strategic Picture.”

Geopolitical Tectonic Plates Shifting, Six Months On (Escobar)

Russia broke the spell. But Moscow’s strategy is way more sophisticated than leveling Kiev with hypersonic business cards, something that could have been done at any moment starting six months ago, in a flash. What Moscow is doing is talking to virtually the whole Global South, bilaterally or to groups of actors, explaining how the world-system is changing right before our eyes, with the key actors of the future configured as BRI, SCO, EAEU, BRICS+, the Greater Eurasia Partnership. And what we see is vast swathes of the Global South – or 85% of the world’s population – slowly but surely becoming ready to engage in expelling the FIRE Mafia from their national horizons, and ultimately taking them down: a long, tortuous battle that will imply multiple setbacks.

On the ground in soon-to-be rump Ukraine, Khinzal hypersonic business cards – launched from Tu-22M3 bombers or Mig-31 interceptors – will continue to be distributed. Piles of HIMARS will continue to be captured. TOS 1A Heavy Flamethrowers will keep sending invitations to the Gates of Hell. Crimean Air Defense will continue to intercept all sorts of small drones with IEDs attached: terrorism by local SBU cells, which will be eventually smashed. Using essentially a phenomenal artillery barrage – cheap and mass-produced – Russia will annex the full, very valuable Donbass, in terms of land, natural resources and industrial power. And then on to Nikolaev, Odessa, and Kharkov.

Geoeconomically, Russia can afford to sell its oil with fat discounts to any Global South customer, not to mention strategic partners China and India. Cost of extraction reaches a maximum of $15 per barrel, with a national budget based on $40-45 for a barrel of Urals. A new Russian benchmark is imminent, as well as oil in rubles following the wildly successful gas for rubles. The assassination of Darya Dugina provoked endless speculation on the Kremlin and the Ministry of Defense finally breaking their discipline. That’s not going to happen. The advances along the enormous 1,800-mile front are relentless, highly systematic and inserted in a Greater Strategic Picture.

Read more …

What happens when you get it all backwards.

Putin Bets Winter Gas Chokehold Will Yield Ukraine Peace – On His Terms (R.)

Cold winters helped Moscow defeat Napoleon and Hitler. President Vladimir Putin is now betting that sky-rocketing energy prices and possible shortages this winter will persuade Europe to strong arm Ukraine into a truce — on Russia’s terms. That, say two Russian sources familiar with Kremlin thinking, is the only path to peace that Moscow sees, given Kyiv says it will not negotiate until Russia leaves all of Ukraine “We have time, we can wait,” said one source close to the Russian authorities, who declined to be named because they are not authorised to speak to the media. “It’s going to be a difficult winter for Europeans. We could see protests, unrest. Some European leaders might think twice about continuing to support Ukraine and think it’s time for a deal.”

A second source close to the Kremlin said Moscow thought it could already detect faltering European unity and expected that process to accelerate amid winter hardship. “It will be really tough if it (the war) drags into the autumn and winter. So there’s hope they (the Ukrainians) will ask for peace,” said the source. There was no immediate response from the Kremlin, which denies Russia uses energy as a political weapon, to a request for comment. Ukraine and its staunchest Western backers say they have no plans to fold and U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say they so far see no signs of support for Ukraine wavering. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in a tweet to Ukrainians on their national day, said: “The EU has been with you in this fight from the very beginning. And we will be for as long as it takes.”

Backed by billions in U.S. and other Western military aid, training and shared intelligence, and with a series of morale-boosting attacks on high-profile Russian targets behind it, Kyiv thinks it has a chance of changing the facts on the ground.”In order for negotiations with Russia to become possible, it is necessary to change the status quo at the front in favour of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, told Reuters. “It is necessary that the Russian army suffer significant tactical defeats.” Ukrainian forces thwarted Russian attempts to capture the capital Kyiv and the second city Kharkiv; have regularly destroyed and disrupted Russian supply lines, and sank the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, as well as inflicting major damage on a Russian air base in annexed Crimea.

Kyiv has also long been talking about a major counter-offensive to retake the south, though Russia has been busy building up its own forces there, and it’s unclear if and when that will materialise. The geopolitical standoff has sent energy prices to record highs. The European Union banned Russian coal and approved a partial ban on Russian crude oil imports to punish Moscow for the “special military operation” it launched exactly six months ago on Feb. 24. And Russia struck its own blow, sharply cutting gas exports to Europe. European governments have sought to increase resilience to energy pressures this winter by seeking alternative supplies and pushing through energy saving measures, but few energy specialists believe they will be able to cover all their needs.

Read more …

There are even people who want to see it dismantled.

Nord Stream 2 ‘Only Sensible’ Solution To Gas Crisis – German MP

The launch of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline could help solve the growing energy crisis in Europe, Bundestag MP Steffen Kotre told the TASS news agency on Wednesday. “Even if the gas storage facilities are full, there will be enough for about three months this winter. And then what? Ideology has to give way to a real fact-oriented policy… The only sensible solution is to launch Nord Stream 2,” Kotre, who is a member of the German parliamentary committee on energy and climate protection, believes. In recent weeks the German government has insisted that there are no plans to launch the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was completed last year but never went into operation due to Berlin’s reluctance to grant it certification.


However, many politicians have been urging the Bundestag to change its stance and make use of the pipeline, which has an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters, to help Germany cope with energy shortages stemming from reduced gas flows from Russia via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Supply through the pipeline recently dropped to 20% of total capacity due to technical setbacks and sanctions.

Read more …

2032.

Belgian PM: “Next 5-10 Winters Will Be Difficult” As Energy Crisis Worsens (ZH)

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo might have spilled the beans about the duration of Europe’s energy crisis. He told reporters Monday, “the next 5 to 10 winters will be difficult.” “The development of the situation is very difficult throughout Europe,” De Croo told Belgium broadcaster VRT. “In a number of sectors, it is really difficult to deal with those high energy prices. We are monitoring this closely, but we must be transparent: the coming months will be difficult, the coming winters will be difficult,” he said. The prime minister’s comments suggest replacing Russian natural gas imports could take years, exerting further economic doom on the region’s economy in the form of energy hyperinflation.


Europe faces a historic energy crisis exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine (and Western sanctions that have backfired). The continent heavily relies on Russia for its energy needs, importing about 40% of NatGas. At just 20% capacity with risks of going to zero next month, Russian supplies via Gazprom’s Nord Stream 1 have sent NatGas and power prices to record highs this week. European NatGas prices soared to a record high of 277 euros per megawatt-hour on Monday, about 15 times the average summertime price. Leon Izbicki, a commodity analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd., told Bloomberg if NS1 flows come to a halt in September, prices could rise to 400 euros per megawatt-hour.

Read more …

Hollowing out.

Exploding Prices Will Impact Trade Balance More Than 1970s Oil Shocks (K.)

The impact of high natural gas prices on Greece’s trade balance will be more severe than the 1974 and 1979 oil shocks and the trade deficit will grow by at least 4.3% of GDP, making Greece one of the most vulnerable European Union countries, according to a study by London-based research firm Capital Economics.Other EU members will also be heavily impacted, says the report, noting that both oil shocks in the 1970s were followed by a recession. National gas futures (also known as TTF for Title Transfer Facility) in Europe have skyrocketed from 20 euros per megawatt-hour before the Covid-19 pandemic to €280/MWh currently, a 14-fold increase. By comparison, the price of Brent crude oil tripled during the first oil shock and doubled during the second.

To determine the size of the natural gas shock on each country’s trade balance, the research firm took account of the fuel mix – oil and gas – used by the countries under study and the fact that some are producers, not importers, of one and/or the other. It also based its scenario on an average gas price of €200/MWh for 2022. The research focused on seven eurozone countries – Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain – adding Canada, the UK and the US. It concludes that Greece and Italy will face the steepest impact on their trade balances, much bigger than during the two oil shocks. Among the countries under study, the impact of the oil shocks on trade balance ranged from 1.6%-2.8% of GDP.

The impact of the rising gas prices will range from 1.9% in France to 4.4% in Italy, putting Greece in second place among the most vulnerable economies. Only France and the Netherlands will manage to contain the damage at levels better than during the 1970s, and that’s assuming the study’s gas price estimate is correct. The first oil shock had increased Greece’s trade deficit by almost 2% of GDP and the second by 2.5%. Capital Economics warns that the final impact could be even higher, as gas price rises have exceeded all assumptions. At present levels, and assuming no further rise, the impact would be 25% higher.

Read more …

So as the trade balance worsens, subsidies soar. Sounds like a long term plan.

The Electricity Subsidy Shock (K.)

A significant rise in the price of electricity announced by state-controlled Public Power Corporation (PPC) for September forced the government to raise its electricity subsidy for September to 1.9 billion euros, from €1.1 billion in August. The subsidy level inevitably follows the PPC’s pricing policy, since it is the dominant player in the market, with 63% of consumers choosing it. While PPC had the lowest price of all electricity providers in August (€0.48 per kilowatt-hour) it raised its September price to €0.788 for those consuming up to 500kWh per month and €0.80 for heavier consumers. In order to stick to its commitment for an actual charge to consumers between €0.14-0.17 per kWh the government had to adjust its subsidy level accordingly, raising it by over 72%.

A positive effect of this policy is that, for some lucky consumers, bills this month may come very low, even negative, just for the power consumption part, before other charges are factored in. Critics of the government’s calculation of the subsidy say that it puts a heavy burden on the budget and, therefore, on taxpayers, gives a wrong impression to consumers about the real cost of electricity and does not provide enough of an incentive to providers to cut prices or, at least, contain them. Among the consumers set to benefit the most are those who signed up with electricity provided Heron’s generous pricing program. At €0.75 per kilowatt-hour, it also provides, like some of its competitors, a 20% discount to those who pay their bills on time, thus lowering for them the price to €0.60/kWh.

When the state subsidy kicks in, customers will pay just €0.111/kWh and the really good payers will be charged a negative rate (-€0.039/kWh). The discount will be credited in the bill after the one in September.After deducting the subsidy, customers of provider Fysiko Aerio will pay €0.04/kWh and half that if they pay on time. Elpedison’s rate falls to €0.044/kWh, Zenith’s to €0.048/kWh, Elin’s to €0.06 and NRG’s to €0.109. PPC, as we have mentioned, has the highest net rate, at €0.149 and €0.161 for heavy consumers, followed by Watt+Volt (€0.145) and Protergia (€0.131).

Read more …

Marie Antoinette.

‘Weary’ Europeans Must ‘Bear Consequences’ Of Ukraine War: EU’s Borrell (ZH)

EU high representative and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell gave a surprisingly blunt assessment of the Ukraine war and Europe’s precarious position in an AFP interview published Tuesday, admitting that Russian President Vladimir Putin is betting on fracturing a united EU response amid the current crisis situation of soaring prices and energy extreme uncertainty headed into a long winter. Borrell’s words seemed to come close to admitting that Putin’s tactic is working on some level, or at least will indeed chip away at European resolve in the short and long run, given he chose words like EU populations having to “endure” the deep economic pain and severe energy crunch. He cited the “weariness” of Europeans while calling on leadership as well as the common people to “bear the consequences” with continued resolve.

Borrell explained to AFP that Putin sees “the weariness of the Europeans and the reluctance of their citizens to bear the consequences of support for Ukraine.” But Borrell suggested that Europe will not back down no matter the leverage Moscow might have, particularly when it comes to ‘weaponization of energy’ – and called on citizens to continue to shoulder the cost. Who will blink first? …appears to be the subtext here. He urged: “We will have to endure, spread the costs within the EU,” Borrell told AFP, warning that keeping the 27 member states together was a task to be carried out “day by day.”

And yet, as some like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán have consistently argued since near the start of the Feb.24 invasion, it is inevitable that some will be forced to bear the “costs” much more than others. Already this is being seen with initiatives out of Brussels like rationing gas consumption, which has further led to scenarios like German towns and even residences being mandated to switch off lights or resources for designated periods at night. “More cold showers” – many are also being told. As we round the corner of fall and enter the more frigid months, we are likely to only see more headlines like this: “German cities impose cold showers and turn off lights amid Russian gas crisis.”

Read more …

“..avoid “demagogy..”

Macron Warns Of ‘End Of Abundance’ (RT)

France is headed toward the “end of abundance” and “sacrifices” have to be made during what is a time of great upheaval, President Emmanuel Macron told his cabinet on Wednesday upon returning from summer break. The country has faced multiple challenges lately, ranging from the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine to the unprecedented drought that has battered the whole European continent this summer. Yet, Macron believes that the crisis is actually of a much bigger scale and that structural changes are imminent.“Some could see our destiny as being to constantly manage crises or emergencies. I believe that we are living through a tipping point or great upheaval. Firstly, because we are living through… what could seem like the end of abundance,” he said.


The country and its citizens must be ready to make “sacrifices” to meet and overcome the challenges they are facing, he continued. “Our system based on freedom in which we have become used to living, when we need to defend it sometimes that can entail making sacrifices,”Macron added. “Faced with this, we have duties, the first of which is to speak frankly and very clearly without doom-mongering,” Macron stressed. The president called upon his cabinet to show unity, be “serious” and “credible” and urged ministers to avoid “demagogy.” “It’s easy to promise anything and everything, sometimes to say anything and everything. Do not give in to these temptations, it is demagoguery,” the president said, adding that such an approach “flourishes” today “in all democracies in a complex and frightening world.”

Read more …

“Washington expects Ukrainian forces “to fight for years to come..”

Timeline is eerily similar to the energy crisis one.

How many Ukrainians will be left when they’re done?

‘Months Or Years’ Before US Arms Reach Ukraine – Media (RT)

Years could pass before some of the weapons in the upcoming “largest ever” package of US military assistance to Kiev actually reach Ukraine, according to Western media reports. On Tuesday, a number of mainstream media outlets cited anonymous US officials as describing the impending announcement of a $3 billion package of military aid to Ukraine. If confirmed, it would be the largest of its kind so far. Washington is by far the biggest supplier of military hardware to Ukraine as it fights against Russia. However, some of the promised equipment “will not be in the hands of Ukrainian fighters for months or years,” according to NBC News, one of the outlets that reported the upcoming package. Included in the package are advanced weapons that are still in the development phase, it explained.


The same caveat was cited by the Associated Press, which said that it may take “a year or two” for the arms to reach the battlefield, according to its sources. Washington expects Ukrainian forces “to fight for years to come,” US officials told the AP. The AeroVironment Switchblade 600 drone is an example of a weapon system that was promised to Ukraine months ago but has yet to be delivered. Defense News said this week that the Pentagon plans to sign the contract necessary for sending 10 of the so-called “kamikaze drones” within a month. Last month, Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov called on foreign suppliers of arms to use his country as a testing ground for new weapons. He pledged to provide detailed reports about the experiences of Ukrainian soldiers with the prototypes provided to them.

Read more …

“Thank you. You did not need to show us the storage room, but we appreciate it. Now it all makes sense..”

FBI Mar-a-Lago Warrant Had ‘No Legal Basis’: Constitutional Lawyers (ET)

Two constitutional lawyers who worked in the Bush and Reagan administrations say that the warrant used to search former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence had no legal basis. A former president’s right under the Presidential Records Act supersedes the statutes the Department of Justice and FBI used to carry out the raid earlier this month, wrote David Rivkin Jr. and Lee Casey, who both served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. “The judge who issued the warrant for Mar-a-Lago has signaled that he is likely to release a redacted version of the affidavit supporting it. But the warrant itself suggests the answer is likely no—the FBI had no legally valid cause for the raid,” they wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart unsealed the warrant and property receipt, showing that it allowed FBI agents to obtain all “physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§793, 2071, or 1519.” And the materials that could be seized are “any government and/or Presidential Records created between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021,” which encompasses all of Trump’s presidential term. As a result, the two scholars said that “virtually all the materials at Mar-a-Lago are likely to fall within this category” but “federal law gives Mr. Trump a right of access to them.”

“His possession of them is entirely consistent with that right, and therefore lawful, regardless of the statutes the FBI cites in its warrant,” Rivkin and Casey wrote. “Those statutes are general in their text and application. But Mr. Trump’s documents are covered by a specific statute, the Presidential Records Act of 1978,” they said, adding that a Supreme Court decision in 1974 affirms their argument. “The former president’s rights under the [Presidential Records Act] trump any application of the laws the FBI warrant cites.”

[..] The former president, in a legal complaint filed earlier this week, wrote that agents visited his home in early June—about two months before the raid—and appeared to approve the installation of another lock. After one FBI agent saw the storage room, they told Trump’s team: “Thank you. You did not need to show us the storage room, but we appreciate it. Now it all makes sense,” according to the filing. “Counsel for President Trump then closed the interaction and advised the Government officials that they should contact him with any further needs on the matter,” it added.

Read more …

“Joe Biden would not object to waiving his predecessor’s claims to executive privilege..”

Unbelievable.

Biden White House Facilitated FBI Mar-A-Lago Raid (JTN)

Long before it professed no prior knowledge of the raid on Donald Trump’s estate, the Biden White House worked directly with the Justice Department and National Archives to instigate the criminal probe into alleged mishandling of documents, allowing the FBI to review evidence retrieved from Mar-a-Lago this spring and eliminating the 45th president’s claims to executive privilege, according to contemporaneous government documents reviewed by Just the News. The memos show then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su was engaged in conversations with the FBI, DOJ and National Archives as early as April, shortly after 15 boxes of classified and other materials were voluntarily returned to the federal historical agency from Trump’s Florida home.

By May, Su conveyed to the Archives that President Joe Biden would not object to waiving his predecessor’s claims to executive privilege, a decision that opened the door for DOJ to get a grand jury to issue a subpoena compelling Trump to turn over any remaining materials he possessed from his presidency. The machinations are summarized in several memos and emails exchanged between the various agencies in spring 2022, months before the FBI took the added unprecedented step of raiding Trump’s Florida compound with a court-issued search warrant. The most complete summary was contained in a lengthy letter dated May 10 that acting National Archivist Debra Steidel Wall sent Trump’s lawyers summarizing the White House’s involvement.

“On April 11, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office — affirming a request from the Department of Justice supported by an FBI letterhead memorandum — formally transmitted a request that NARA provide the FBI access to the 15 boxes for its review within seven days, with the possibility that the FBI might request copies of specific documents following its review of the boxes,” Wall wrote Trump defense attorney Evan Corcoran. That letter revealed Biden empowered the National Archives and Records Administration to waive any claims to executive privilege that Trump might assert to block DOJ from gaining access to the documents. “The Counsel to the President has informed me that, in light of the particular circumstances presented here, President Biden defers to my determination, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, regarding whether or not I should uphold the former President’s purported ‘protective assertion of executive privilege,'” Wall wrote. “… I have therefore decided not to honor the former President’s ‘protective’ claim of privilege.”

Read more …

How can the FBI work with Trump II after January 2025?

FBI Brass Warned Agents Off Hunter Biden Laptop Due To 2020 Election (NYP)

FBI officials told agents not to investigate first son Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop for months — vowing that the bureau was “not going to change the outcome of the election again,” according to whistleblower claims made public Wednesday by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) “These new allegations provide even more evidence of FBI corruption and renew calls for you to take immediate steps to investigate the FBI’s actions regarding the laptop,” Johnson wrote in a letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. According to the senator, “individuals with knowledge” had told his office that “local FBI leadership” had slow-walked the laptop investigation after the computer was recovered from a Wilmington, Del. repair shop in December 2019.

Johnson quoted FBI management as telling employees “You will not look at that Hunter Biden laptop” and promising the bureau would not alter the 2020 election outcome — a reference to the FBI reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server days before the 2016 election. “Further, these whistleblowers allege that the FBI did not begin to examine the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop until after the 2020 presidential election,” the Republican added. sJohnson said the new whistleblower claims should be enough to prompt the inspector general to take prompt action. “While I understand your hesitation to investigate a matter that may be related to an ongoing investigation, it is clear to me based on numerous credible whistleblower disclosures that the FBI cannot be trusted with the handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop,” Johnson wrote.

He added that Horowitz should start “by obtaining the history of the investigative actions taken by the FBI on Hunter Biden’s laptop which should be available on the FBI’s case management system, Sentinel.” Johnson’s letter comes after “highly credible whistleblowers” accused the FBI and Justice Department last month of burying dirt on President Biden’s son by incorrectly dismissing the intelligence as “disinformation,” according to Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

Read more …

Fauci will use this to play the victim.

DeSantis Says ‘Little Elf’ Fauci Should Be ‘Chucked Across The Potomac’ (RT)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has responded after senior health official Anthony Fauci said he would leave his post at the end of the year, calling the White House adviser a “little elf”while suggesting somebody should toss him into DC’s Potomac River. Speaking at a ‘Keep Florida Free’ event on Wednesday as he campaigns for reelection, DeSantis tore into the outgoing Covid czar, saying he’s “just sick of seeing him.” “I know he says he’s going to retire. Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac,” the Republican governor said, drawing loud cheers from the crowd. Fauci, who has long served as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has taken prominent positions in both the Donald Trump and Joe Biden administrations, effectively becoming the face of the White House’s Covid response.


On Monday, however, the official said he would resign his post at NIAID and leave the Biden administration in December, though noted he would not be “retiring,” but rather “moving on”from his current positions. Fauci has drawn heated criticism from Republicans and conservative critics throughout the pandemic, with many slamming his policy advice for officials, while others have pointed to potentially dangerous coronavirus research funded by Fauci’s agency before the global Covid outbreak. Though the official has insisted all funding was vetted and approved through the proper channels, GOP Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has vowed to probe NIAID and Fauci in particular, calling for a “full-throated investigation into the origins of the pandemic”earlier this week.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

Taiwan

 

 

 

 

 

 


The Pyramids of Giza. Photo: Karim Amr

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle August 25 2022

Viewing 23 posts - 41 through 63 (of 63 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #114262
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz asked, “For me this is the really puzzling thing about the Anglos, what is this hatred for Russia all about?”

    You may have missed my reply to Dr D about much the same question, why are the Brits so foaming at the mouth rabidly hateful of Russians. Here’s what I posted to Doc:

    “Why Russians? Because it was the Czar of the Rus who kicked the diabolical Khazarian Empire out of the Ukraine and Caucasus region a thousand years ago, and those thieving, Satan worshipping, child murdering, Khazarians really know how to hold onto a grudge. Since being deprived of their own real estate by Russian Christians the more or less still intact bloodline of the dynastic Khazarian ruling family have infiltrated and usurped the power of pretty much every country and institution that they could manage.
    That’s basically the fight we’re waging now. It’s partly a war of fundamental ideology (freedom vs slavery, good vs bad, truth vs lies, individual sovereignty vs authoritarian dictatorship, etc. ) But on the other hand there is a distinct and completely real genealogical aspect to it as well. The top of the top (and the therefore the worst of the worst) of the “Cabal” side of the war is literally a zealously hyper protected dynastic “royalty” (an actual bloodline) that contains many of the sub-family names that we are all so familiar with through various conspiracy “theories” that the Cabal very energetically works to discredit by all means fair and foul.”

    Pretty much all of the “Blue Blood” royal families of Europe are deeply interbred, cross-bred and inbred with the nasty old Khazarian royals going all the way back to at least the 6th century BCE, who made a very focused and concerted point of infiltrating those powerful Western European royal houses. British aristocracy, for example, is rife with their polluted genome (Klaus Schwabs wife even has the deformed “Habsburg Jaw as a souvenir of centuries of inbreeding). House of Windsor, however, is special because they connect in virtually every way possible (genetically, politically, financially, religiously, feudally and more.)

    Like I told Dr D, the Khazarians hold grudges like nobody else and are very very VERY big on revenge for any and all perceived slights and injuries. They blame the Russians for causing the Khazar’s loss of Empire and a millennium of stateless wandering. Pretty crazy, even by psychopath standards.

    The Anglo ruling class are, insofar as Russia and Russians are concerned, mere proxies of the unabated and ever simmering hatred of the numerous descendants of the Khazarian dynasty bloodline. It doesn’t take much for that simmer to turn to a roiling boil whenever they see an opportunity to harm or annihilate their ancient foe, the Rus.

    P.S.
    Today is the 7th wedding anniversary of my daughter and her Thai husband, Balee. She ‘s a painter and he’s a philharmonic composer, and both love beautiful cultured Thailand.

    #114263
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    It’s fairly clear to me.

    Two women accompanied an abuse and selfish man to the beach. The man drank far too much -both bottles of wine to be shared later at a picnic- and fell asleep in a drunken stupor. The women buried him up to the chest in sand, and put a red cushion on his head to make him look like a clown.

    Having woken, he is now negotiating the price he has to pay to be released before the tide comes in.

    As for the present-day world, it’s just one more turn of the screw by the scumbags at the top of the pyramid who are torturing the rest of us (and the natural world), and one day closer to collapse of their Ponzi schemes. And it’s one day closer to revolt or revolution.

    Trying to remember how it goes. It’s something like:

    You can fool all of the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all of the time. But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

    I have much simpler one:

    Geochemistry beats ideology every time.

    So does mathematics:

    #114264
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    An edit comment function would be useful. That was supposed to be abusive.

    Got to go: many things to do in preparation for the meltdown.

    #114265
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    phoenixvoice

    I think that the “red thing” is a hat on a head, a red beret.

    That red thing? Oh for fuff’s sake… Yes, it’s obviously a red beret.
    I was looking at the water for a red blob of some kind.
    The red hat was so obvious I didn’t consider it…
    Thanks phoenixvoice…

    #114266
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    #114267
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    for upstateNYer:

    vf

    Having lost faith in those who claim to rule with righteous authority, we turn said faith to Cthulhu and trust it to behave in a neat, orderly, and systematically evil manner so that we can say ‘I told you so’. It’s how we got into this mess in the first place, and we’re no less compulsively and obsessively addicted to doing the same old same old as those nasty puppet masters we so very much love to loathe.

    I loathe ye cuz yer dirty but I love you cuz yer home

    #114268
    zerosum
    Participant

    Edit function works for me.

    #114269
    Bill7
    Participant

    “It stops when WE say it stops.”

    Who is this collective “we” ?

    The 1) darpaNet and 2) “pandemic” have functioned very well for their designers and instigators. To speak of collective action as long as as the former is a primary means of communication- easily subverted and redirected-
    is naive, at best.

    From my point of view, events are going pretty much according to ruling-class plan: “oops, you’re all dead!”, and stuff like that.

    I do what I can, and my tiny garden is a solace, as are the ring-necked doves, and many of the smaller birdies. Working with wood helps, too.

    #114270
    Bill7
    Participant

    V. Arnold: I hear you, bro.

    #114271
    John Day
    Participant

    @D Benton Smith: Anniversary congratulations to your daughter and her husband. Comments noted.

    A@AFewKnowTheTruth: Thanks for the Al Bartlett video. I think I last watched it something like a decade ago. “55 MPH speed limit” dates it pretty far back, to a time of relative reason, perhaps.


    @Dimitri
    : I’ve been reading some Marx, not Das Kapital, though. and not the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, but the short and engaging Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
    https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/preface.htm
    and the (evidence that Marx had to work as a hack for a living sometimes) Communist Manifesto
    https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

    @Upstate NYer: Sorry about circumstances, Sister. I agree.

    @Dr. D: It was kind of fun reading this “easy Marx” stuff. Most of the goals of the Communist Manifesto were realized long ago, largely by the model of Henry Ford, and by things now as mundane as women-voting and kids going to school together. The big problem of “The Communists” was that workers got nothing and died when they didn’t have work. That got fixed, then the workers-have-nothing part got exported again to un-fix it, but “Capitalism” was already careening around the globe seeking an advantage in 1850.
    The other few little pages of introduction by Marx are better, and should be read first. He postulates that the means of production determine the thoughts and opinions and philosophy of societies, and that “problems” are not even “seen” in history until their “solution” is already possible, or nearly possible. The “Bourgeois” Marx speaks of are industrialists, who concentrated “Capital”, the means of production, as factory complexes.
    It’s funny to see that with the distribution of “ownership of the means of production” through stock-holdings, his existential problem of the wage-workers is solvable, and that solution is already old hat 401k. Granted, it’s just a sip… The government owning the factories was the only simplistic solution those guys could come up with. We saw how it worked out. Totalitarianism-in-flavors.

    We are still faced with all of the practical problems of the transition of an age-of-productive-means. We still exist in the Bourgeois-Age, according to Marx, and we might call it “Industrial Society” instead. Marx didn’t adequately comprehend the coal-as-means-of-production thing so much as we do now. It’s ok. He comprehended a lot. He was basically a historian and philosopher who didn’t go far in law, and got backed-into Political Economy. He did note the necessity of his feeding himself impinging heavily on his study and writing…

    So it’s not about words, even though Marx was really good with words. He cheated grossly in the Communist Manifesto, said all kinds of unsupportable crap, and knew he was doing it, because he was a smart guy, but he needed the bread. He would make a deft little declaration that sounded good at the end of a paragraph, and go onto something different, having just slid an unsupportable assertion into the mind of the reader as clear-truth.

    Distribution of the means of essential-production, like food, water and shelter seems do-able, but it’s harder than it seems. Local food is a lot of work. Most locations just grow a few things well. Potato-famine. Storage-losses. People don’t work much for the most part. There are few farmers, not enough to go around.
    Supplies to build shelter have to travel. Fuel has to travel, and that needs diesel and pipelines and coal mines because trees are for houses and furniture.
    Everybody owning stock in the business where they work seems like a good and do-able idea. It can be trimmed to fit. “Skin in the Game” is broadly acclaimed as “good”.
    Some people who don’t work owning most of the means-of-production, at the expense of the societies which support the conditions necessary for production, and for “ownership” seems wrong.
    (Looking at You, Bill Gates! Looking at You Rockefellers, Rothschilds et al!)

    We can lay blame, but we need to figure out where we can go with the least damage to all of us, or we have not done anything of much use. Even if we’ll be saddled with whatever Russia, China, Iran, Brazil & india work-out, won’t it be better if we have thought the problem through ourselves? Look how the Russkies got blindsided by “free-markets”.

    #114272
    Bill7
    Participant

    Which reminds me, I need to get- or maybe make- a spokeshave, and some
    good means of holding irregularly-shaped
    pieces of wood. I just split out some local Cypress for braces, and boy, does it smell good! Fished the boards out of
    the dumpster around the corner, dried it for not quite long enough, and will see what it wants to do.

    #114273
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Good to hear from upstateNYer, I was wondering about her (IIRC) a few days before oxy asked.

    Been speculating that Dr D might be a ‘team’, based on their (?) prolific deep output during these times when there is so much to do IRL (which lately has been keeping me from reading most of the comments here, and rarely posting), but I think it’s more likely that he (?) is part of a mutually supportive community of sorts, a smart option.

    Bill7: “I do what I can.”
    Right on.

    “you’re all dead!”
    What to do before this prediction comes true? There’s plenty to do, no need to be bored.

    #114274
    Bill7
    Participant

    > “you’re all dead!”
    What to do before this prediction comes true? There’s plenty to do, no need to be bored. <

    My hat is sincerely off to you and that life-affirming approach, Doc R. Meaning questions have always been an issue here.

    #114275

    The future isn’t real until it gets here,
    and then it quickly turns into the past.
    The present lasts for just a blinking moment-
    So this is why my life went by so fast!

    #114276
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    #114277
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @MyParentsSaidKnow

    When you get to heaven you need to look up Robert Service and the two of you go out for a beer.

    #114278
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    * The Daily Covid
    – Moderna Sponsors the US Open
    – Ivermectin is more dangerous than Fentanyl … to corporate profits
    – Trump will get blamed for the vaccines because of Warp Speed
    – Pfizer knew the vaxx caused miscarriages
    – Insurance companies may refuse to pay the jabbed; Their best bet is to take out student loans
    – You are Troy, Covid was the horse, the vaxx was the Greeks and Kory was Cassandra. Another one bites the dust.

    * Leadership
    – Finnish PM parties like there’s no tomorrow
    – Davos gets coverage but Jackson Hole does not although Macron really enjoys Les Grandes Tétons
    – Our leaders have no moral authority
    – Pelosi: President Bribe’em can’t cancel student debt
    President Bribe’em: I didn’t cancel it guy, I paid it off

    * Next 5 to 10 winters will be bad until demand adjusts down to supply, in other words, you are the demand and you have 5 to 10 years to adjust down
    – RT broadcast this winter: Every seven seconds a European freezes to death without Russian gas (Sound of clock ticking in background)

    * On the Beach
    – Please don’t blame the painting on color blindness
    – The painting is best explained by the Wikipedia article for “On the Beach”:
    In 1964, World War III devastated the Northern Hemisphere, killing all humans there due to nuclear fallout. The only habitable areas are in the far reaches of the Southern Hemisphere, but air currents are slowly carrying the fallout south … Moira and friends watch the Sawfish leave Australia and submerge for the final voyage home and then take their forever pills.
    – And BTW, it is more interesting as art when viewed upside down

    * There is plenty of oil at $1000 a barrel

    * When all truth becomes unbelievable
    Because we are all so deceivable
    As facts trickle out
    Surrounded by doubt
    We’re trapped in a world inconceivable

    * The people who wallow in pity
    Have balls that are so itty bitty
    Enveloped in fright
    They no longer fight
    Their attitude’s worthless and shitty

    #114279
    Bill7
    Participant

    On record producer Bob Johnston (Dylan’s ‘Highway 61′, and many others):

    https://tapeop.com/interviews/80/bob-johnston/

    There’s a snippet w/ Bob Johnston in the’No Direction Home’ documentary that piqued my lasting interest. Soul folk..

    Blonde on Blonde could’ve been a superb single disc. Its ‘Visions of Johanna’ is better served on the Biograph set, I think, and the rest sounded formulaic in its quantity.

    #114280
    WES
    Participant

    It is very nice to see so many of TAE’s regular commentators pop in for a visit today. It is like old times again!

    #114282
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Thanks zerosum. I must ahve missd somthing. Will try editing aftr pstng this

    ‘A RISE IN ACIDITY
    Statistics NZ reported that their updated ocean acidification indicator shows there has been a decrease in the pH of New Zealand’s subantarctic surface waters as they have become more acidic. Between 1998 and 2020, ocean acidity in these subantarctic surface waters increased 8.6% corresponding to a pH decrease from 8.092 to 8.057. (Because the pH scale is logarithmic, small changes in pH represent large changes in acidity.) Changes in pH in the open ocean are primarily influenced by absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide by seawater.’

    What the Interst.co nz article doesn’t say is that the lower the pH drops, the harder it is for shellfish to form shells, due to messing up of the bicarbonate cycle.

    So those who say there is plenty of oil and that we should burn it might like to consider the kind of world doing so creates.

    #114283
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    Karl Rove was telling the truth when he said “We are an Empire Now. We create our own reality”. But, it was only for a short period until 2015 when the Kremlin popped the bubble and its successful military intervention prevented a regime change in Syria. Donald Trump gummed up the works and delayed the world war for four years. The Russia, China and Iran Axis and its commodity based financial system is an existential threat to the Western corporate/state Empire — Wall Street and the City of London.

    The Imperial Blob is intentionally sacrificing Ukrainians and soon other Europeans to maintain their hegemony. Their “only money has value” ideology and the possible loss of status (not being an Insider any more) means that they cannot acknowledge that it is all over. They must forever believe their own propaganda.

    Actually, this is now a multi-polar world. The only way humans will survive the catastrophes of a possible nuclear war, climate change, pandemics, resource depletion, and over population is if good government and peace are restored. The West and the Axis must sign an armistice and build DMZs to separate each other; just like the First Cold War.

    This winter in Europe will determine if human beings survive on earth or not.

    #114296
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Afewknowthetruth said

    So those who say there is plenty of oil and that we should burn it might like to consider the kind of world doing so creates.

    Still supporting Green Energy: those billionaires are counting on people like you. Still supporting Green Energy: this is why I hate the left, they are so ideological that they cannot see the forest in their eye.

    #114339
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    And they bickered, reliably, over anything that could be misconstrued: noting the perils of fossil fuel toxicity is not the same as advocating what is so tiresomely called “Green Energy”. Me, I’m a huge fun of nuclear energy, although there is a (shall we say) Peak Uranium problem with that as well.

    As for looming bottleneck dieoffs: some of us will live, even thrive. It’s really really hard to say whom. Some of the best preppers will die from bullets or botulism or mere old ptomaine. Some of the dullest of wit and no sense of preparation will come through unscathed. It’s quite the lottery we’re entering.

    Mr. Lucky If Paul Desmond famously sounded like a “stiff well-made martini”, this music by Mancini sounds like that fellow down the bar who can’t handle his scotch.

Viewing 23 posts - 41 through 63 (of 63 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.