Sep 142022
 


Pablo Picasso Composition “Peasants” 1906

 

Is War What You Asked For? (Kunstler)
Civilisation Or Barbarism – Western Dusk, Eastern Dawn (Hoppe)
Medvedev Issues Apocalyptic Warning To West Over Ukraine (RT)
Kiev Publishes Security Guarantee Proposal (RT)
West Considers Arming Ukraine With More Potent Weapons – FT (RT)
Kremlin Denies Plans For War Declaration & National Draft (ZH)
Leaked Paper Reveals EU Is Unlikely To Cap Price Of Russian Gas (G.)
Why The EU Is Struggling To Bring Its Energy Crisis Under Control (OP)
Berlin Prepares Massive Energy Bailout (RT)
Elegy for a Disappearing Empire (PL)
What’s Behind The Mystery Of Thousands Of Excess Deaths This Summer? (G.)
Liz Truss Energy, Tax Plan ‘Will Give Richest Families 2x As Much Support’ (G.)
Big Banks Making a Killing Off Global Hunger, Energy Crises (CD)
The Fed Is Going To Pivot In 3 Stages – Nomi Prins (CNBC)
New Durham Bombshell: Steele Primary Source Was Paid FBI Informant (JTN)
Charles Will Not Cool On Climate Action, Say Friends (BBC)

 

 

“I believe that scientific knowledge has fractal properties, that no matter how much we learn, whatever is left, however small it may seem, is just as infinitely complex as the whole was to start with. That, I think, is the secret of the Universe.”
– Isaac Asimov, I Asimov, 1995

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moderna: The Art of the Steal
https://twitter.com/i/status/1569684117587128321

 

 

The Mediterranean in Australia

 

 

Tucker books
https://twitter.com/i/status/1569685375110578176

 

 

 

 

“Will Germany, France, Italy, and the rest now leap into a war against Russia on the plains of Ukraine in winter? I think they will sooner overthrow their own WEF-directed governments.”

Is War What You Asked For? (Kunstler)

The New York Times today is ballyhooing the Ukraine military’s “lightning advance” east of Kharkov. I’d argue that what The Times wants you to see is not exactly what is happening. Rather the Russians appear to have made an orderly, tactical retreat from the outskirts of Kharkov, inducing the NATO-trained Ukraine forces eastward across the Siverskyi Donets River and out into the flat, open country where they will be cut off, cauldroned, and slaughtered. Everything that NATO and the US have done in this conflict has been a stupid move. Why should this one be an exception?

At the same time, Russia has hit a number of power generation plants around Ukraine, leaving many Ukrainians without lights, hot water, communications — in short, what’s needed to remain civilized. This was exactly what Russia had hoped to avoid the past eight months, but the obdurate pathological idiocy of our country’s leaders has forced Russia to send a harsher message to provoke some rational thought here about ending this conflict. There is even chatter on the web that Russia is about to declare that the special military operation is now a war, with all that implies about targets.

The US may be crazed beyond redemption, but the people of the NATO member countries might have had a clarifying experience lately watching their governments barter away the natural gas they desperately need to run industry and heat their homes this winter — in the foolish gesture of jumping on America’s sanctions bandwagon. Will Germany, France, Italy, and the rest now leap into a war against Russia on the plains of Ukraine in winter? I think they will sooner overthrow their own WEF-directed governments. This appears to be just what has happened in Sweden’s election on Sunday where a bloc of center-right parties has ousted the left government led by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.

The question for now is this: Will the US jump stupidly into World War Three over Ukraine? If not, how much does Russia have to disrupt life in the rest of Ukraine outside the Donbas to drive the US and NATO into serious peace talks? It better happen soon because otherwise the West will be completely preoccupied with the collapse of its financial markets, currencies, and economies — and probably before the November elections here.

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“The proverbial ‘cancel culture’ has become a cancellation of culture,” as President Putin said.”

Civilisation Or Barbarism – Western Dusk, Eastern Dawn (Hoppe)

For some time, the festering unipolar power – the Anglo-American empire – has been the self-appointed magistrate claiming jurisdiction over the planet, as it became the accepted ‘”moral authority of interpretation” in (at least) the western world and was able to exert its influence on public opinion pretty much everywhere. The transatlantic neo-liberal propaganda machine and its various mechanisms of infiltration have always been a powerful tool – they are in fact the imperialist forces’ greatest weapons… stronger than cluster bombs, because they have a global reach and infect minds, while leaving the outward appearance intact.

A brilliantly devious tactic was its appropriation and abuse of symbols, slogans and terminology of the once authentic “left” and “progressive” movements. One of its noxious characteristics is the brazen attempt to rewrite history for its own benefit. With this appropriation, Nazis are seen as freedom fighters, the Russians as Fascists, kleptocracies as democracies, conservatives as right-wingers… and neo-liberals as left-wingers and rebels, with this last group attracting incalculable adulators of the “progressive mindset” in culture and academia, who, in turn, promote the ideas of the neo-liberals. Pasolini clearly expected this back in 1975: “I prophesy the era in which the new power will use your libertarian words to create a new homogenised power, to create a new Inquisition, to create a new conformism. And your clerics will be left-wing clerics.”

Unfortunately, many literary scholars, analysts and journalists have underestimated the imperialist and colonialist infiltration into other cultures around the world… which is why many now seem stupefied at the extent to which postmodern neo-liberal “culture” has overshadowed the local cultures of non-Western countries… Unfortunately the youth of these countries, thanks to global consumerism, have little to no other orientation and roots for their own culture… and they face many identity crises. If one does not conform to the hegemonic narrative, one is erased from the mainstream press, from social media and, in many cases, from society… (And some journalists even end up in prison or are blacklisted.) And this increasingly applies to cultures, as well.

In addition to the fashionable trend today of tearing down statues of those repudiated by the ‘woke magistrates’, artists and thinkers from “territories seen as hostile” by the hegemony and NATO are being erased – for example: Russian artists past and present (e.g. Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, Chekhov, conductor Valery Gergiev, soprano Anna Netrebko)… Even the letter “Z” is seen as a hostile character of the alphabet in many western countries… “The proverbial ‘cancel culture’ has become a cancellation of culture,” as President Putin said.

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“Their people will harvest their grief in full. The land will be on fire and the concrete will melt..”

Medvedev Issues Apocalyptic Warning To West Over Ukraine (RT)

Western “half-wits” from “stupid think tanks” are leading their countries down the road of nuclear armageddon with their hybrid war against Moscow, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Tuesday. Endlessly funneling weapons and support to Ukraine while pretending not to be directly involved in the conflict will not work, added the deputy chair of the Russian Security Council. The “security guarantees” proposal unveiled by Kiev on Tuesday was “really a prologue to the Third World War,” said Medvedev, calling it a “hysterical appeal” to Western countries engaged in a proxy war against Russia.

If the West continues its “unrestrained pumping of the Kiev regime with the most dangerous types of weapons,” Russia’s military campaign will move to the next level, where “visible boundaries and potential predictability of actions by the parties to the conflict” will be erased and the conflict will take on a life of its own, as wars always do, Medvedev argued. “And then the Western nations will not be able to sit in their clean homes, laughing at how they carefully weaken Russia by proxy. Everything will be on fire around them. Their people will harvest their grief in full. The land will be on fire and the concrete will melt,” Medvedev wrote, before citing a Bible verse from Revelations 9:18.

“Yet still the narrow-minded politicians and their stupid think tanks, thoughtfully twirling a glass of wine in their hands, talk about how they can deal with us without entering into a direct war. Dull idiots with a classical education,”Medvedev wrote. His comments were prompted by Kiev’s publication of a “security treaty” proposal, developed under the tutelage of former NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The draft envisions the US and its allies guaranteeing Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders with weapons, ammunition, financial assistance and training, as well as committing to maintain sanctions against Russia for as long as Kiev wants, and handing over any confiscated Russian property to Ukraine.

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Delusion galore.

Kiev Publishes Security Guarantee Proposal (RT)

Ukraine has presented a proposal of recommendations for security guarantees, which would politically and legally bind the country and its guarantor states in a strategic partnership known as the ‘Kiev Security Treaty.’ The proposals, developed at the request of President Vladimir Zelensky and published on Tuesday, were drawn up by an advisory group headed by former NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Kiev suggests countries including the US, UK, Australia and Turkey could act as security guarantors for Ukraine. The “multi-level”approach would see a “core” group of allies making clear commitments to support Ukraine’s military, while a broader group would provide non-military guarantees based on sanctions.

“We need a military force strong enough to repel the Russians’ desire for revenge. And one capable of causing irreparable damage to the aggressor if this desire turns out to be irresistible,” Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrey Yermak said. He said the agreement would not be a substitute for joining NATO, but a means of ensuring security until Ukraine officially joins the US-led military bloc. Former NATO secretary general Rasmussen said the “immediate priority” was to achieve victory for Kiev and stressed that Ukraine would require decades of support from its Western partners. Security guarantees for Ukraine was a main sticking point in talks with Russia in Istanbul in March.

Moscow argued that if Ukraine promised not to seek NATO membership, it would be provided with guarantees from a number of countries, including Russia. Talks eventually came to a halt after Ukraine’s negotiators insisted on sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula, which seceded from Kiev’s rule in 2014 and joined the Russian Federation following a public referendum. The ‘Kiev Security Treaty’ proposal has been in the works for months. Russia has previously insisted that the only promises of security for Ukraine can be provided by Moscow. “No one will accept Ukraine into NATO now. The alliance consists of Russophobes, but it is not suicidal,” he said, arguing that the US will cease to care about Ukraine when it is convenient.

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What a great idea.

West Considers Arming Ukraine With More Potent Weapons – FT (RT)

The US and its allies are in talks over whether to send Ukraine more advanced weapons in the future, including fighter aircraft, a US defense official has said, according to the Financial Times. Some of Kiev’s Western allies were emboldened by last week’s successful offensive against Russia in Kharkov Region, the British newspaper reported on Tuesday. They are now discussing “Ukraine’s longer-term needs,”according to the anonymous US source. Some believe it would be appropriate to send warplanes to Ukraine in the “medium to longer term,” the source said, according to the publication. Western nations previously refused to provide fighter jets to Ukraine, citing the time it would take to train Ukrainian pilots, issues with servicing advanced weapon systems on the ground, and a risk of escalation in the conflict with Russia.


Kiev made some progress in talks with Slovakia, a former Warsaw Pact member, which said it could provide its older Soviet-made jets to bolster the Ukrainian legacy fleet. The Slovakian military retired its MiG-29s in late August. The offensive in Kharkov Region was touted by US officials as a major success for the Ukrainian military, which in previous months had suffered a number of defeats on the battlefield against Russian and Moscow-allied forces. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed on Monday that Kiev’s forces had made “significant progress” after benefiting from Western support “in terms of making sure that Ukraine has in its hands the equipment it needs to prosecute this counteroffensive.” Western intelligence agencies played a key part in preparing the Ukrainian operation, according to Mark Warner, the chair of the US Senate Intelligence Committee.

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They had 50,000 troops in the recent war games in the east. Why would they need a draft?

Kremlin Denies Plans For War Declaration & National Draft (ZH)

On Tuesday the Kremlin addressed widespread speculation and rumors that President Vladimir Putin is planning to issue a full declaration of war as Russian forces pull back from Kharkiv, in a Ukraine counteroffensive that Kiev leaders and their Western allies are hailing as a major success. A war declaration would trigger mass mobilization and a draft. “Russia is not planning to declare a mass national draft for the war in Ukraine,” the Kremlin stated, amid reports its forces are suffering fatigue, low moral and manpower shortages. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized this is not under discussion at this point: “Not at this point. No, we are not discussing that,” he said when asked about widespread reports, as quoted in TASS news.

Peskov was then pressed about the degree to which Ukrainian forces had advanced into Russian lines in the northeast, amid ongoing heavy fighting, but he declined to address the ground situation. “This [question] is for the Defense Ministry. I simply do not have accurate information,” he said. There does appear to be growing pressure from inside Russia to act, according to The Moscow Times: Lawmaker Mikhail Sheremet, a member of the State Duma’s Security Committee and the ruling United Russia party, spoke out in favor of general mobilization on Monday, according to the URA.ru news agency. “Without full mobilization, [without] switching to the war mode, including the economy, we will not achieve the desired results,” the agency quoted Sheremet as saying.

“I am talking about the fact that today society should be consolidated as much as possible and aim for victory,” said the deputy. There have meanwhile also been signs in Russian domestic media and among popular pundits of a narrative shift that is increasingly recognizing recent Russian losses and setbacks, and the need for a strategy overhaul, as well as growing criticism of how the “special operation” is being managed. Very likely there’s under-the-surface ratcheting tensions across the population due to mounting casualties among the country’s young men who’ve been thrust into battle these past seven months.

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Reality 1, Von der Leyen 0.

Leaked Paper Reveals EU Is Unlikely To Cap Price Of Russian Gas (G.)

The EU executive is retreating from imposing a price cap on Russian gas, but pushing ahead with windfall taxes on energy company “surplus” profits, according to a leaked document. A draft regulation on the “electricity emergency tool” seen by the Guardian contains neither a price cap on Russian gas nor on imported gas, after member states were unable to agree on restrictions last week. The EU is expected to levy windfall taxes on the high profits of fossil fuel companies, with a separate cap on revenues of low-carbon electricity producers. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is expected to publish Europe’s plan on dealing with surging electricity prices when she makes her annual state of the union speech on Wednesday.

The final text could still change, but the draft reveals the Commission’s doubts over gaining enough support from EU member states for its preferred option of putting a cap on Russian gas in response to what it has called the Kremlin’s weaponisation of supply. EU member states that import large amounts of gas from Russia, including Hungary, Slovakia and Austria, have spoken out against a cap on Russian gas because they fear the Kremlin would halt all gas flows, plunging their countries into recession. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has already threatened to halt energy exports to Europe if such a plan is agreed.

About a dozen countries, including France and Poland, would like to impose a price cap on all imported gas, which they see as a better way to curb surging prices. The Commission is unenthusiastic about this idea, because it fears the EU would lose out to countries prepared to pay more in the highly competitive market for liquefied natural gas. The Netherlands and Denmark are wary of any price cap, while Germany fears a price cap on Russian gas would be divisive. With member states divided, the Commission, which is responsible for drafting EU legal proposals, is pursuing measures that unite the 27-member club. EU governments are largely supportive of capping the price of electricity from low carbon sources, such as renewables or nuclear, and recycling these funds to vulnerable households and businesses.

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“A few weeks like this and the European economy will just go into a full stop. Recovering from that is going to be much more complicated than intervening in gas markets today..”

Why The EU Is Struggling To Bring Its Energy Crisis Under Control (OP)

Last Friday, the energy ministers of the 27 EU members met for an emergency discussion of the energy supply situation in the bloc. The one thing they agreed on was implementing a ceiling on the revenues of power utilities that do not use gas to generate power. What they did not agree on was everything else the Commission suggested last week, including a price cap on Russian gas, a cap on final energy prices, and a direct intervention in EU electricity markets. It’s hard to get 27 countries to agree on so many things without any compromise. This is why the EU’s survival plans for the winter may never work as intended.

Last week, the European Commission, headed by Ursula von der Leyen, proposed that EU member states impose a price cap on Russian natural gas imports, a mandatory cut in energy consumption across the bloc, and a cap on the revenues of power utilities that do not use gas. The Russian gas price cap was one of the items that divided the EU at the Friday discussions after Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, warned that any country imposing a price cap on Russian oil or gas would stop receiving them. Some EU members argued in favor of a gas price cap for all gas imports into the bloc, following a similar suggestion made by Poland earlier this month. Some 15 members of the EU were in favor of such a move, but others were skeptical. And they were right to be skeptical: Norway, the EU’s gas savior, has signaled it would not accept a cap on the price it gets for its gas.

“That’s not a solution we’d propose, we don’t think it answers the EU’s challenges,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said, adding, “I tell my European colleagues that I’m not the one who sells the gas.”The problem is that the European Union does not have all the time in the world to discuss how to go about saving its economy and its citizens from blackouts this winter. And as Bloomberg pointed out in a recent analysis of the situation ahead of the energy ministers’ meeting, speed is not among the things the European Union is known for. Belgium’s Prime Minister put it bluntly. “A few weeks like this and the European economy will just go into a full stop. Recovering from that is going to be much more complicated than intervening in gas markets today,” he told Bloomberg last week. “The risk of that is de-industrialization and severe risk of fundamental social unrest.”

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So you pay 4x more for energy, and then you pay another $1,000 per capita to bail out your energy company.

Berlin Prepares Massive Energy Bailout (RT)

Germany is planning to allocate €67 billion ($67 billion) to provide financial aid to domestic energy companies hit by supply shortages resulting from the sharp decrease in natural gas imports from Russia, the business daily Handelsblatt reported on Tuesday, citing sources close to the federal government.The massive financial package is expected to help KfW, the German state-owned investment and development bank, to provide guarantees and liquidity assistance to local energy firms. The funds will reportedly be transferred from the WSF (Economic Stabilization Fund), which was created during the Covid-19 pandemic. “In view of the price increases, forward-looking action by the federal government and KfW is required,” government sources told the media.


Gas prices throughout the EU have surged in recent months as a result of sanctions imposed on Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine, and the reduction of Russian supplies. EU leaders had previously announced plans to reduce gas consumption by 15% from August 1 until the end of March 2023. Member states have discretion over the specific measures adopted to achieve the goal. “The Federal Ministry of Economics has received various applications for liquidity bridging from companies in the gas and energy supply sector, they are currently being examined,” an internal government paper seen by Handelsblatt reads. “The volume of applications is in the low double-digit billions.” Earlier this month, Germany’s largest gas importer, Uniper, asked for extra government aid due to financial losses from its attempts to replace Russian natural gas by buying gas on the spot market.

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“In the grip of a terrible crisis, probably in its last gasps, the US empire can’t even remotely conceive a new Marhall plan. On the contrary, it is behaving like the old Soviet Empire.”

Elegy for a Disappearing Empire (PL)

[..] the Soviet Union just could not afford costs equivalent to the Marshall plan. So, the behavior of the US empire was, and remains, dictated by practical factors rather than ideological ones. When the US had a considerable surplus, it could afford an extravaganza such as the Marshall plan. Not just an extravaganza, though. It was also a good investment since the European states were a much better barrier against a possible Soviet attack if they were economically strong. Note also that the economic aid of the Marshall plan didn’t come without strings attached. To have the money, the Western European states had to cut all ties with the Soviet Union and with the states of the Warsaw Pact. And the local communist parties, at that time still relatively strong, were to be kept outside government coalitions.

Now, of course, things have changed a lot. In the grip of a terrible crisis, probably in its last gasps, the US empire can’t even remotely conceive a new Marhall plan. On the contrary, it is behaving like the old Soviet Empire. The whole West is turning into a police state, where the government controls all the media and criminalizes dissent . Then, it is not surprising that the imperial center is extracting resources from its client states in Western Europe to the point of beggaring them. The discussion could be long and detailed but I think that, as usual, we can find much food for thought in the behavior of past empires. In particular, I think that a good illustration of the behavior of empires is given by how the Romans dealt with the Britons during the period that goes from the 1st century BC to the 3rd century AD.

We see how the annexation of the Britons was only in part obtained by a military invasion. Mostly, it was a question of assimilation. The Romans “romanized” the Britons, making them appreciate such things as the Roman money and the luxury items that money could buy. Then, they tricked them into borrowing money from Rome and, finally, when they could not repay the debt, they used that as an excuse to seize their assets and their lands. The similarities between the behavior of the US empire with Western Europe are evident. First, they offered money to the Europeans to rebuild their economy, and now they are squeezing Europe dry.

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From the chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh: “The real reason is as mundane, and tragic, as an underfunded NHS still struggling with the terrible effects of Covid..”

NHS, extreme heat, and Covid. What vaccines?

What’s Behind The Mystery Of Thousands Of Excess Deaths This Summer? (G.)

Over the past couple of months, deaths in England and Wales have been higher than would be expected for a typical summer. In July and August, there were several weeks with deaths 10% to 13% above the five-year average, meaning that in England about 900 extra people a week were dying compared with the past few years. The leading causes of death are within the typical range (the five-year average): heart and lung diseases, cancers, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Covid-19 deaths could account for half of the excess mortality, but the other half is puzzling, as there’s no one clear reason that jumps out.

It’s likely to be a mix of factors: Covid is making us sicker and more vulnerable to other diseases (research suggests it may contribute to delayed heart attacks, strokes, and dementia); an ageing population; an extremely hot summer; and an overloaded health service meaning that people are dying from lack of timely medical care. This winter, the cost of living crisis and concerns about fuel poverty will add to these contributory factors, given the links between deprivation and ill health. So we may see these excess death numbers continue.

The excess mortality puzzle has been weaponised by some to argue that this is a delayed consequence of lockdown. In essence, this is to say that mandatory restrictions on mixing and stay-at-home legal orders, as well as turning the NHS into a Covid health service during the first and second waves of infection, prevented people from being diagnosed or treated for other conditions such as cancer, heart disease, or even depression – and that those long-hidden conditions are now killing people. Of course, some medical care suffered during the pandemic, and delayed diagnosis leads to poor health outcomes. But to say that not having restrictions would have solved this problem is naive. Restrictions ultimately limited the number of people hospitalised for Covid-19 at any one time, so that the health services could cope with these numbers. Healthcare is finite: the best way to preserve resources for non-Covid conditions was to keep Covid infections as low as possible.

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Quelle surprise.

Liz Truss Energy, Tax Plan ‘Will Give Richest Families 2x As Much Support’ (G.)

Liz Truss’s plans for an energy price freeze and sweeping tax cuts will give Britain’s richest households twice as much financial support with living costs as the poorest households, according to a leading thinktank. The Resolution Foundation said the prime minister’s energy package, announced hours before news of the death of the Queen last week, would come with a “colossal” price tag for taxpayers that was poorly targeted to help those most in need when combined with tax cuts promised in her leadership campaign. It said the richest tenth of UK households would receive £4,700 in support, on average, from the government’s “energy price guarantee” and cuts to national insurance – far in excess of the £2,200 support for a typical household in the poorest tenth.


The intervention comes as details of the new prime minister’s plan to support struggling households remain unclear, after she chose to hold back from publishing the costings for her proposal until a mini-budget, expected to take place next week. The Resolution Foundation said the plan to limit an increase in the cost of a typical household energy bill to £2,500 for two years from October would cost about £120bn. It warned that Truss’s plan to avoid a fresh windfall tax on energy producers would mean heaping the cost on taxpayers, with as little as £1 in every £12 spent on energy support for households recouped directly from higher taxes on energy firms.

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Follow the money, not the science.

Big Banks Making a Killing Off Global Hunger, Energy Crises (CD)

Russia’s war on Ukraine has wreaked havoc on global commodity markets, driving up energy and food prices and exacerbating hunger emergencies around the world. But while disastrous for the global poor — millions of whom are living on the brink of famine — the chaos has been a major boon for Wall Street giants, according to new data showing that the world’s 100 largest banks are on pace to smash commodity trading profit records this year. “The 100 biggest banks by revenue are set to make $18 billion from commodities trading in 2022,” Bloomberg reported last week, citing figures from the London-based firm Vali Analytics. “That would be the highest in the data, which goes back 14 years, and exceed the previous high watermark in 2009.”

“The prediction is the latest evidence that the wild swings in energy prices triggered by the war in Ukraine are delivering a boon to commodity traders, even as they push European nations into crisis,” Bloomberg added. “Vali, an analytics firm that tracks trading business, compiled data that includes the leading five banks in commodity trading: Macquarie Group Ltd., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., and Morgan Stanley.” Though the prices of wheat and other food staples have fallen from their peak in recent months, they remain significantly elevated compared to last year, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, leaving millions vulnerable to hunger and starvation.

The World Food Program estimates that “as many as 828 million people go to bed hungry every night” and “the number of those facing acute food insecurity has soared — from 135 million to 345 million — since 2019.” Energy prices have also eased but remain high, contributing to cost-of-living crises throughout Europe and other parts of the globe. “People’s misery makes capitalists’ superprofit,” Salvatore De Rosa, a researcher at the Lund University Center for Sustainability Studies, tweeted in response to Bloomberg’s reporting. “How do you reform this?” Wall Street banks have not just benefited from the commodity price increases — they’ve actively helped fuel them, experts say.

“We’re in a market where speculators are driving prices up,” Michael Greenberger, former head of the Division of Trading and Markets at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, told Mongabay in July. “Commodity markets are supposed to be hedging markets for people who are dealing with the commodity involved,” Greenberger said. “In the case of wheat, it would be farmers and people buying wheat. But if we looked at it, there would be banks in there with no interest in what the price of wheat is, writing swaps and controlling this price.”

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“..the Fed’s book still remains just a touch under $9 trillion, which is double what it was going into the pandemic period, and since the financial crisis of 2008.”

The Fed Is Going To Pivot In 3 Stages – Nomi Prins (CNBC)

The U.S. Federal Reserve could be forced to pivot away from its path of aggressive interest rate hikes in three stages, according to author Nomi Prins. Markets expect the central bank to enact a third consecutive 75 basis point hike at its monetary policy meeting later this month, the fastest pace of monetary tightening since policymakers began using the benchmark Fed funds rate as the principal policy tool in the early 1990s. Various Fed officials have reiterated the Federal Open Market Committee’s commitment in recent weeks to reining in inflation, but Prins told CNBC Tuesday that the acceleration of interest rate hikes to soothe the markets was disconnected from the economic reality faced by many.

“This period of accelerating the rate hikes that we’ve seen so far has impacted the real economy because it has squeezed the borrowing costs … for real people, real consumers,” she said. “Whereas for the Street in general, historically money still remains cheap and leverage still remains high in the system, and the Fed’s book still remains just a touch under $9 trillion, which is double what it was going into the pandemic period, and since the financial crisis of 2008.” Despite the broad market expectation for further 75 basis point hikes, Prins – a global economist and outspoken advocate for economic reform – said the Fed would likely pivot away from its hawkish trajectory in three stages as the disconnect between wealthy investors and institutions and the “real economy” widens.

Having firstly reduced the pace of rate hikes to 50 basis points and then neutralized policy, Prins expects the Fed to begin reversing course and becoming “accommodative,” with the U.S. already having recorded two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. “Whether that’s to cut rates or to increase the size of its book again, that still remains to be seen,” Prins added.

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The swamp stinks.

New Durham Bombshell: Steele Primary Source Was Paid FBI Informant (JTN)

In a bombshell revelation, Special Prosecutor John Durham revealed Tuesday in court filings that the FBI paid a Russian businessman as a confidential human source in the investigation of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign even though it had prior concerns that businessman was tied to Moscow’s intelligence services. Durham persuaded the federal judge in the upcoming trial of Igor Danchenko to unseal a motion revealing that Danchenko, the primary source of the now-discredited Steele dossier, was paid by the FBI as a confidential human source for more than three years until the fall of 2020 when he was terminated for lying to agents. Danchenko is charged with five counts of lying to the bureau during that relationship and faces trial next month in federal court in the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C.

“In March 2017, the FBI signed the defendant up as a paid confidential human source of the FBI,” Durham’s unsealed court filing disclosed for the first time. “The FBI terminated its source relationship with the defendant in October 2020. As alleged in further detail below, the defendant lied to FBI agents during several of these interviews.” The revelation means that the FBI first fired former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, the author of the Hillary Clinton-funded dossier, as a human source in November 2016 for having unauthorized contacts with the news media. And it then turned around a few months later and hired Steele’s primary informer to work with the bureau even after determining some of Danchenko’s statements in the Steele dossier were uncorroborated or exaggerated.

Even more stunning, Durham confirmed that the FBI had concerns about Danchenko’s ties to Russian intelligence a decade earlier, opening up a counterintelligence probe on him after learning he was trying to buy classified information from the Obama administration. “As has been publicly reported, the defendant was the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation from 2009 to 2011,” Durham wrote. “In late 2008, while the defendant was employed by a prominent think tank in Washington, D.C., the defendant engaged two fellow employees about whether one of the employees might be willing or able in the future to provide classified information in exchange for money.

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“Chairman of Natural England and a long-term adviser to Charles, Mr Juniper has spoken of the “incredible depth” of his knowledge and the “absolutely enormous” impact he has had.”

Oh sweet Jesus…

Charles Will Not Cool On Climate Action, Say Friends (BBC)

Will King Charles III turn his back on a lifetime of environmental campaigning? As Prince of Wales he spent decades campaigning, cajoling, and convening meetings to drive action on environmental issues. As king he is subject to different rules – the monarch is obliged to remain politically neutral. But his friends and advisers say he will not cool on the issue of global warming. Might urging action on key global issues like climate change or biodiversity loss be part of what a modern monarchy looks like? King Charles’ interests have ranged from tropical forests to the ocean depths, from sustainable farming practices to water security. They began long before such concerns became mainstream. Within months of his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969, the 20-year-old Prince Charles wrote to Prime Minister Harold Wilson worried about the decline of salmon stocks in Scottish rivers.

“People are notoriously short-sighted when it comes to questions of wildlife,” he complained. Increasingly he has focused on tackling global warming, which he regards as one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced. He was a major presence at the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow last year, urging world leaders to work together to save the planet during a speech at the opening ceremony. When I interviewed him ahead of COP26 he told me “It has taken far too long” for the world to respond to the risks of climate change. I pointed out world leaders would soon be gathering to talk about the climate crisis, he responded: “But they just talk, the problem is to get action.”

He even said he understood why some people felt motivated to take to the streets with organisations like Extinction Rebellion, noting “people should really notice how despairing so many young people are”. As for the risk of not taking action, he was very clear: “It will be a disaster. It will be catastrophic. It is already beginning to be catastrophic because nothing in nature can survive the stress that is created by these extremes of weather.” The veteran green campaigner Tony Juniper rates the new king as “possibly the most significant environmental figure of all time”. Chairman of Natural England and a long-term adviser to Charles, Mr Juniper has spoken of the “incredible depth” of his knowledge and the “absolutely enormous” impact he has had.

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Home Forums Debt Rattle September 14 2022

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  • #115875

    Pablo Picasso Composition “Peasants” 1906   • Is War What You Asked For? (Kunstler) • Civilisation Or Barbarism – Western Dusk, Eastern Dawn (Hop
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle September 14 2022]

    #115876
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    King Charles III calls for a military style campaign to enforce the private sector to adhere to net zero… the main sectors targeted will be energy, agriculture and transportation…

    #115877
    Dr. D
    Participant

    We’re definitely getting some bizarre items out of Russia now. I think the people we see are not written in, and from what I can tell, have some bizarre millennial ideas about what wars are. Go home and hide under your bed then.

    What are any of them talking about? Russia hasn’t even started to fight. They lifted their first pinky finger only yesterday by cutting off the power. And they’ve lost? They haven’t used and Migs or fired any hypersonics. And they’ve lost? 2/3rds the army is still home. And they’ve lost?

    C’mon, I don’t know who any of these guys are, and we’re the losingest military on planet earth for generations, and even WE know all that talk is … insane.

    Take a breath. When they battlefield nuke every acre inside the new cauldron, erasing every member of the armed forces and every NATO asset in existence, we can get them back up on TV again to ask what they think.

    Is that a way to say Russia has options? A lot of them? And that people on TV have no idea what they’re talking about, West or East?

    “FBI Tracks Down Mike Lindell on Hunting Trip, Surrounds His Car and Seizes Cell Phone”

    It’s a safe bet they don’t have anything or they wouldn’t need all the theatre. They’d just press charges instead. Btw, are all J6 still in the Bastille, no charges yet? How many years can you be held before a “Speedy trial”?

    A: Ask Assange.

    “The US and its allies are in talks over whether to send Ukraine more advanced weapons in the future, including fighter aircraft,”

    What future, what aircraft? NATO is incapable of air flight anywhere Russia wishes. Biden has succeeded in his complete Slavic genocide, fighting to the last Ukrainian, widely discussed, approved, and advertised. As Russia closes the cauldron, the remaining army – and every slavic male – will be killed. Ukraine will cease to exist as an ethnos. That means there is no future to consider, and why Germany and the U.S. know all they have to do is foot-drag and can get away providing nothing.

    But: Nazi. “Genocides R Us.” And all for great leader, propaganda, as their weird failed political form goes.

    Redacted appears and I’m trying to get a lock on where they come from, but they asked what are the Ukie soldiers doing? They think they’re winning. Lies are all they’ve been told. They’re just about to take Moscow. All NATO is fighting with them. The Russians are on the run. In fact, they – NeoNATO – is completely uncaring, to make a few gains they can’t hold, running unarmed men into machine gun fire and artillery strikes. Why? Only guess is genocide, and to hold the illusion one more day. Like the Reich did as they approached Berlin.

    “Kremlin Denies Plans for War Declaration & National Draft (ZH)”

    I realize this discussion is a trial balloon to gauge public support, and demonstrate that to NATO.

    “A few weeks like this and the European economy will just go into a full stop. Recovering from that is going to be much more complicated than intervening in gas markets today..”

    So many things we haven’t considered because we never have or never would, but yes: like a refinery, if you shut down a chemical plant, I don’t know what it takes to restart it again. Some things are odd to restart: ironically it takes grid-level power to start a power plant. But how about a steel mill or city-sized bakery? If you shut the gas of that size, does it cause back-pressure problems elsewhere? This happens when a neighborhood substation goes dark, but the system isn’t infinite.

    We’ll all find out.

    “Berlin Prepares Massive Energy Bailout (RT)”

    I’m confused by the words “bailout” here. Wtf “bailout” do they mean? We pay money and yet more money? Which will solve the problem by requiring more money? And after we pay money, no energy appears?

    “I don’t think that word mean what you think it mean.”

    Because printing money ever-rapidly, without end, for no solution sounds like “Hyperinflation”. That is, failure of faith in government.

    “The whole West is turning into a police state, where the government controls all the media and criminalizes dissent”

    This is the sign and proof of weakness and collapse. Weakness bc if you’re winning, you can tell the truth, collapse bc nobody’s going to support your violent nonsense where the people are the target.

    What’s Behind the Mystery of Thousands of Excess Deaths this Summer? (G.)”

    A: We’ll never know. Science and Medicine are completely uncurious and will never look. Wait: they don’t look, aren’t curious, but about this and only this ONE thing? How do they know which things to be curious about?

    A: Because they do know. Exactly and precisely. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t know to ban it and the hash #DiedSuddenly.

    “Liz Truss Energy, Tax Plan ‘Will Give Richest Families 2x as Much Support’ (G.)”

    Burned no matter what you do, their houses are more than twice as large so in a sense, if you did you’d be giving them half as much. But given it’s not a money thing but supply thing, probably in this case they should provide baseline and not sliding scale. They wanted a war, and this is war footing.

    “Big Banks Making a Killing off Global Hunger, Energy Crises (CD)”

    Yes, but similar to the above, Banks make money on longs and shorts. So it doesn’t matter the action or direction. Up Down, Left, Right, all instruments. Since all actions result in this, why bring it up now? A: We feel like slandering them instead of solving things. If they want a fix, they need to change root incentives that don’t fit in Twitter.

    “The Fed Is Going to Pivot in 3 Stages – Nomi Prins (CNBC)”

    Prins has been a source of solid, if coded, information. However we’re also missing the obvious: the Fed raises until they break things. Okay, now WHAT things? Who is, the weakest link? Goodbye.

    “Increasingly he has focused on tackling global warming, which he regards as one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced.”

    Why? Russia and Canada are about to go online with the largest increase in arable land in world history. If you believe their Science. The arctic becomes easy to travel and drill. There are 3x more polar bears than ever. And Water hasn’t raised an inch in NY harbor. Sounds like a win.

    The only place the ecology has been destroyed is New Jersey, Melbourne, and all the places they paved perfect farmland, which still have the highest funding and tax incentives. #Winning. Because they care so, so much they only do things that don’t work, and refuse all things that do.

    #115878
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    The ‘net zero’ that the maniacs at the top of the power pyramid so frequently talk about is all bollocks, of course.

    However, perverse as I seems, ‘net zero’ will be achieved when the bulk of the population has been murdered or has starved to death, and fossil fuels are no longer extracted and burned.

    Until that point -of burning no gas, of burning no oil, of burning no coal, of manufacturing no steel, of manufacturing no concrete*,of manufacturing no glass*, of manufacturing no aluminium, of no electric cars, of no ‘windmills’, of no industrial system at all – is reached, everything the ‘powers that be’ say is simply a litany of half-truths and lies. But it is what most people want to hear.

    Since making war is one of the fastest ways of squandering energy and resources, the longer that wars are fought, the worse our collective predicament is made. But no one is going to talk about that, either.

    The ‘long emergency, the ‘long descent’, the reversal of the Industrial Revolution, whatever term you wish to use to describe reality, will be grim for most sentient life on this planet.

    Bacteria, algae, fungi, maybe jellyfish and a few species of tube worms, ants, earthworms and spiders etc. will inherit the Earth because the maniacs persist with being maniacs.

    *Theoretically, it would be possible to return to medieval methods of manufacture of concrete and glass involving the use of charcoal. But I really cannot envisage that happening.

    #115879
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    As far as I can tell, it’s not just the ‘Chicago School’ economists who are completely nuts; it’s all mainstream economists.

    Somewhere along the way, they decided that creating money out of thin air, creating digits in computer systems – processes that consume energy- were the same as creating energy.

    According to the insane theories of economists (and bankers and politicians), when there is an energy crisis, the solution is to use copious amounts of energy to create more computer digits and to use yet more energy to shift those digits from one place to another.

    These nutcases have a stranglehold on the levers of power, and they will not relent until they have driven everyone and everything into a ditch.

    Pity the children.

    #115880
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Dr. D #115877

    Today you out did yourself; kudos for a map of the territory we traverse these days…

    #115881
    John Day
    Participant

    Approaching Equinox” is up, with picture of Jenny with some eggplant she just harvested.
    https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/approaching-equinox

    There is a rumor that something is going to happen Saturday, September 24, 2022, something that people will remember in the same way that they remember 9/11/2001, and the assassination of John Kennedy on November 22. 1963, both of which I remember clearly.
    Both of those events staged America for massive wars. JFK was going to get the US out of Vietnam after he got reelected, and he was making certain that Israel did not develop a nuclear weapon. We saw how those things went under LBJ. 9/11 was “the new Pearl Harbor” for “a new American century”.
    Today the western financial empire, enforced by US/NATO, and with wealth extracted through the $US being the global trade currency, stands at a precipice, and needs to leap over a chasm. The rest of the world, led by Russia and China, wants to adopt the BRICS global trade regime, to default on $US debts. The American “petrobuck” is spent into existence by the US government, to fund the military boot on throats around the world. Saudi Arabia has traditionally sustained this relationship, started by FDR, but formalized by Nixon & Kissinger.
    The global war will need to be against TROTW, the-rest-of-the-world. I foresee this being the end of this empire, but nothing this big happens quickly in history. I really wondered if the “dark Biden” TV speech, “the continued battle for the soul of the nation”, with the “Red-Sermon” look, and the US Marines standing behind “the president” was a signal that war would soon commence. The question is, therefore, who will be sacrificed on this blood-altar for “the soul of the nation”, in the interests of global slavery to our dark, shadowy overlords.

    Paul Craig Roberts: 9/11 After 21 Years: (Includes the infamous photo of WTC-7 still standing out the window as the newscaster declares that it had just collapsed)
    It was obvious to me early that 9/11 was an inside job, a false flag event blamed on Muslims in order to justify two decades of a “war on terror” whose purpose was to destroy Israel’s Middle Eastern opponents who were funding Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that twice drove the vaunted Israeli Army out of Israel’s attempted occupation of southern Lebanon. If Hezbollah’s supporters–Iraq, Syria and Iran–could be eliminated, Israel could seize the water resource in southern Lebanon. This, and profits and power for the US military/security complex are all the “war on terror” was about.

    9/11 After 21 Years

    This is a topical library of 9/11 research articles compiled in 2012, and very well organized for ease of use.
    THE 9/11 READER: The September 11, 2001 Terror Attacks

    THE 9/11 READER. The September 11, 2001 Terror Attacks

    The Weakness of Xi Jinping is an article by a retired academic from a Chinese university that trains rising party members. He was discredited for his opposition to “Xi Jinping thought” , had his retirement confiscated, and was told that he might soon have health problems. He lives in the US. It is very detailed and extensive, but you must also consider the source. He is personally embittered, and serves American interests now.
    The Weakness of Xi Jinping: How Hubris and Paranoia Threaten China’s Future , By Cai Xia
    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/xi-jinping-china-weakness-hubris-paranoia-threaten-future

    #115882
    WES
    Participant

    Banks …… Never waste a good crisis!

    King Charles …… King of the WEFs?

    Yeah, the Ukraine is winning the progand war!

    So it is covid, not the vaccines, that is causing excess deaths!

    #115883
    Dora
    Participant

    “• What’s Behind The Mystery Of Thousands Of Excess Deaths This Summer? (G.) ”

    Edward Dowd has some ideas about the “mystery”.

    https://gettr.com/post/p1qrs6x15d0

    #115886
    John Day
    Participant

    This won’t post, so I’ll put gaps in some links …

    Surplus Energy Economics looks at where “economics” comes from, the last 250 years, pointing out that Marx declared himself “not a Marxist”, but separating historical market economy in 1776 (Smith, pre-industrial), 1850 (Marx, early industrial), and mid 20th century (Keynes, always intentionally misunderstood out of context). We have not worked out the post-growth market economic system yet, but it won’t work itself.
    There can be no doubt at all that the global economy is in very bad shape. For some, this portends a general “collapse”. This, however, presupposes that we don’t adapt to new conditions, and that we don’t learn from past mistakes. We have a pretty solid history of doing exactly that, even if we only arrive at the right conclusions after trying all of the wrong ones first.
    Of course, to adapt to new conditions, and to learn from mistakes, we need to know what these conditions and these mistakes actually are. Conventional interpretations of economics are failing us through an inability to provide the information required for this understanding.
    The view set out here is that we do have a greatly enhanced understanding of how the economy works. Orthodox economics may continue to cling to precepts first laid down in the eighteenth century – essentially, that the economy can be understood in terms of money alone – but broader thought has moved on, spurred by energy shortages, by environmental concerns, and by recognition that the ‘perpetual growth’ promised by the orthodoxy simply isn’t happening…
    #239: Life after liberalism?

    Charles Hugh Smith has this laid out with bullet points for easy reading, and it is not long:
    Why This Recession Is Different
    Let’s explore what’s different now compared to recessions of the past 60 years.
    http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/09/why-this-recession-is-different.html

    In Bucha, collaborators could be identified by their possession of Russian food rations. Death-sentence, executed immediately.
    Ukrainian mayor announces hunt for ‘collaborators’
    Kiev’s troops will search for those who supported Russia during the “cleanup” efforts, Izyum head told the BBC
    https://www.rt. com/russia/562651-izyum-situation-filtration-collaborators/

    MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. Mercenaries are shooting residents of the Kharkov Region and filming it on camera in order to later accuse Russian servicemen, Vitaly Ganchev, head of the military-civilian administration of the region, said during a Rossiya-24 TV broadcast.
    “The situation is complicated and still alarming due to the fact that those people who were able to get out, say terrible things about what is now happening in Kupyansk and Veliky Burluk. It seems that mercenaries are driving around and shooting people, and all this is being filmed,” he said, “I take it they need to clean up these towns and pretend that it were in fact Russian troops, that they tortured people, [and that is why] corpses lying in the streets.”
    https://tass. com/politics/1506371

    #115888
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Another proxy war is being ramped up. Oil-rich Azerbaijan is attacking Armenia, apparently under US-Israeli sponsorship, with a view to diverting Russian attention and resources away from Ukraine.

    And there are still US forces in Syria, protecting those who steal Syrian oil and transport it over the border.

    #115889
    John Day
    Participant

    It’s still not acceptting Russian links, so more spaces in links …

    Germany refuses to give battle tanks to Ukraine
    Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht says the country’s military aid to Kiev has reached its limit
    https://www.rt. com/news/562638-germany-battle-tanks-ukraine/

    Ron Paul: Europe Commits Suicide-by-Sanctions (I think there’s another name for “suicide” when you kill somebody else, right?)
    What happens when the people see dumb government policies making energy bills skyrocket as the economy grounds to a halt? They become desperate and take to the streets in protest.
    This weekend thousands of Austrians took to the streets in a “Freedom Rally” to demand an end to sanctions and the opening of Nord Stream II, the gas pipeline on the verge of opening earlier this year. Last week an estimated 100,000 Czechs took to the streets of Prague to protest NATO and EU policy. In France, the “Yellow Vests” are back in the streets protesting the destruction of their economy in the name of “defeating” Russia in Ukraine. In Germany, Serbia, and elsewhere, protests are gearing up.
    http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2022/september/12/europe-commits-suicide-by-sanctions/

    New England Journal of Medicine is like the New York Times of medicine… Even if you earned your immunity the hard way, mRNA lipid micelle gene-therapy “vaccines” take it away.
    Covid Vaccine Destroys Natural Immunity, NEJM Study Shows

    Covid Vaccine Destroys Natural Immunity, NEJM Study Shows

    #115890
    Dora
    Participant

    Dr. Mike Yeadon.

    “It’s the inability to believe it’s happening that really stops people objecting when they should, when the evidence is unmistakable but has not yet quite reached their door, their family.”

    https://metatron.substack.com/p/an-important-message-from-dr-mike

    #115891
    John Day
    Participant

    Reading Dr. D made me think of this song, “Burned”, by Buffalo Springfield.

    #115892
    zerosum
    Participant

    Monkey cage info

    Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, warned that any country imposing a price cap on Russian oil or gas would stop receiving them.

    ”The problem is that the European Union does not have all the time in the world to discuss how to go about saving its economy and its citizens from blackouts this winter.

    “A few weeks like this and the European economy will just go into a full stop.

    So you pay 4x more for energy, and then you pay another $1,000 per capita to bail out your energy company.

    There were 87 grain ships delivering grains. 85 to EU and 2 to/for starving Africans.
    “People’s misery makes capitalists’ superprofit,”
    • Big Banks Making a Killing Off Global Hunger, Energy Crises (CD)

    Our leaders know, that’s why they don’t look and tell. (contributory factors to excess death numbers )

    bizarre ideas about what is war

    #115893
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-world-is-hindenburg-in-search-of.html
    Wednesday, September 14, 2022
    The World Is A Hindenburg In Search Of A Spark – 10 Of The Most Explosive Issues We Face
    1. This information is often shaped to distract rather than inform. The stuff and fluff presented as news by mainstream media generally omit many of the important events occurring across the world. In short, most people never hear about the protests, killings, and governments failing to protect the rights of their people. Most people never hear the things the media intentionally excludes from its coverage. Overall we, as a society, are poorly informed
    1 to 10 ……
    Well, that seems to be enough. If you want to bring up another major issue let me know in the comment section. For fun and giggles,

    #115894
    chooch
    Participant

    Russia isn’t even using its main fighting force yet or its up to date equipment.

    This is getting nuttier by the day.

    Ramzan “Don” Kadyrov releases a new uplifting message, saying Russians are not retreating, it’s all their cunning tactics to lure Ukrainian. Says he would declare martial law but it’s not up to him to decide.

    #115895
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Lynne Stewart

    #115896
    Autonomous Unit
    Participant

    “Why? Russia and Canada are about to go online with the largest increase in arable land in world history. If you believe their Science. The arctic becomes easy to travel and drill. There are 3x more polar bears than ever. And Water hasn’t raised an inch in NY harbor. Sounds like a win.”

    I’d like a source for this arable land claim. Growing food needs more than warm enough temperatures, soil must be good as well. I think tundra soil may be a little too acidic for wheat.

    here’s a link to actual sea levels at NYC since 1950. Up nine inches.
    https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/waterlevels.html?id=8518750&units=standard&bdate=19500101&edate=20171231&timezone=GMT&datum=MSL&interval=m&action=data

    if the link doesn’t work, search at “tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/”

    #115897
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Arendt (excerpts from Origins of Totalitarianism

    Under conditions of constitutional government and freedom of opinion, totalitarian movements struggling for power can use terror to a limited extent only and share with other parties the necessity of winning adherents and of appearing plausible to a public which is not yet rigorously isolated from all other sources of information.
    Wherever totalitarianism possesses absolute control, it replaces propaganda with indoctrination and uses violence not so much to frighten people (this is done only in the initial stages when political opposition still exists) as to realize constantly its ideological doctrine and its practical lies. Totalitarianism will not be satisifed to assert, in the face of contrary facts, that unemployment does not exist; it will abolish unemployment benefits as a part of its propaganda…

    (She is describing gas-lighting.)
    Scientificality of mass propaganda has indeed been so universally employed in modern politics that it has been interpreted as a more general sign of that obsession with science which has characterized the Western world since the rise of mathematics and physics in the sixteenth century; thus totalitarianism appears to be only the last stage in a process during which “science [has become] an idol that will magically cure the evils of existence and transform the nature of man.”
    “Scientism” in politics still presupposes that human welfare is its object, a concept which is utterly alien to totalitarianism.
    It is precisely because the utilitarian core of ideaologies was taken for granted that the anti-utilitarian behavior of totalitarian governments, their complete indifference to mass interest, has been such a shock. This introduced into contemporary politics an element of unheard-of unpredictability…. Thus the suspicion of the Allies that the murder of the insane which Hitler ordered at the beginning of the war should be attributed to the desire to get rid of unnecessary mouths to feed was altogether unjustified. Hitler was not forced by the war to throw all ethical considerations overboard, but regarded the mass slaughter of war as an imcomparable opportunity to start a murder program which, like all other parts of his program, was calculated in terms of millennia. Since virtually all of European history through many centuries had taught people to judge each political action by its
    cui bono and all political events by their particular underlying interests, they were suddenly confronted by an element of unprecedented unpredictability.
    The chief disability of totalitarian propaganda is that it cannot fulfill this longing of the masses for a completely consistent, comprehensible, and predictable world wiithout seriously conflicting with common sense.
    Before they seize power and establish a world according ot their doctrines, totalitarian movements conjure up a lying world of consistency which is more adequate to the needs of the human mind than reality itself; in which, through sheer imagination, uprooted masses can feel at home and are spared the never-ending shocks which real life and real experiences deal to human beings and their expectations.
    The true goal of totalitarian propaganda is not persuasion but organization–the “accumulation of power without the possession of the means of violence.”
    The stubbornness with which totalitarian dictators have clung to their original lies in the face of absurdity is more than superstitious gratitutde to what turned the trick, and, at least in the case of Stalin, cannot be explained by the psychology of the liar whose very success may make him his own last victim. Once these propaganda slogans are integrated into a “living organization,” they cannot be safely eliminated without wrecking the whole structure.
    The fundamental reason for the superiority of totalitarian propaganda over the propaganda of other parties and movements is that its content, for the members of the movement at any rate, is no longer an objective issue about which people may have opinions, but has become as real and untouchable an element in their lives as the rules of arithmetic.
    It is in the moment of defeat that the inherent weakness of totalitarian propaganda becomes visible.

    Excerpts from book 3: Totalitarianism, chapter 11: The Totalitarian Movement, section I: Totalitarian Propaganda. Most of them are first sentences of paragraphs. (Arendt had an excruciatingly organized mind.)

    #115898
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Global climate disruption (GCD) provides the distraction it needs to succeed. While everyone argues whether GCD is anthropogenic or not, the debate obscures the primary fact: whatever GCD is or isn’t happening, we’re rapidly depleting the fuel we need to continue debating such (at this point) nonsensical issues.

    Same, btw, with planned population/economy demolition: population/economy gonna crash either way, with or without Davosian assistance. But we’d rather argue whose fault it is, as if the fault for the fate of a species, and the ecosystems it is inarguably destroying, were that of any-thing/one less than all of us.

    Got Water?

    Energy depletion/ecology devastation gonna be problems for a long time, sweethearts. QR codes and mRna alterations and all that covidiotic jazz will be gone in 5-20 years, depending upon variable cofactors. I’ll say ten, cuz I can count that high.

    #115899

    “And while you’re studying that reality- judiciously, as you will- we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study, too…”

    What’s coming isn’t winter-
    Winters lead to spring’s display.
    What’s coming is an ice age
    And a glacier’s on the way

    #115900
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    The London/Washington/Kiev/Brussels fascists have decided to ramp up their desperate operations to overcome bastions of truth and humanity, and have taken their fight for survival directly into Russian territory, via attacks on civilian targets on the Russian side of the border away from the previous conflict zones.

    As MSC puts it, the SMO has entered a new phase, essentially, Russia no longer attempting to ‘be nice’, and now recognising that when you are attacked by vermin, you have to be ruthless and stamp them out. But do it as cheaply as possible in terms of human suffering and equipment losses.

    Time works for them [Russians] and the Ukrainians lose all the time…the Ukrainians losing 6 or 7 soldiers for each Russian loss.

    A crucial dam has been damaged, and water is gushing down the Ingulets river -up 2.5 metres- cutting off the Ukes on their ‘bridgehead’. Uke cell phones not working and energy supplies down.

    “If the Russians continue the entire Ukrainian army economy will be collapsed by these attacks…”

    Why would Russians stop when they winning so decisively?

    Clearly the NATOstan countries are going to have to put in more weapons that don’t work particularly well, if they want to prolong the war beyond October.

    #115901
    Bill7
    Participant

    A good comment on ‘Mass Formation’ from CJ Hopkins’s website:

    [Name redacted]

    “This isn’t actually what Desmet and Malone are saying though. I haven’t given the whole “mass formation” thing much attention until now. But I’ve just read Peter Breggin’s analysis after seeing clady’s comment above .

    Desmet and Malone are claiming there is no organised maleficence involved in the situation, that the powers that be are as “hypnotised” as the masses. This is ridiculous and lets off the perpetrators. So ridiculous I don’t believe this is an honest mistake on their behalf, they know what they are doing.

    On a slightly different but related topic. Is anyone else suspicious of the technical babble around the contents of the “vaccine” – “oh so they thought the spike protein would be disappear from the system around a week after delivery, but new research shows it stays around for months! This is why it causes some issues.” – implying there was good intention but Mistakes Were Made. Also the whole ivermectin “debate”, implying there really is some terrifying plague to be concerned of, it’s just the response has been fluffed somehow.”

    Yes, something like that.

    #115902
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Collapse of the [historic] debt system necessitates the establishment of a new system with increased levels of control.

    #115903
    Bill7
    Participant

    It’s interesting that the “news” more and more resemble a cross between a TV game show, and a “reality” show.
    I wonder why that is? Maybe teevee has changed, though- I haven’t watched it for many years.

    “Season 2”

    #115904
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    “One thing about the Fed, and I’ve been telling this ot anyone who would listen for the past 20 years, is that the Fed can do anything. But they can’t print food, they can’t print energy, and apparently, they can’t print medical, and they can’t print rent. And so now we have the four horsemen of the economic apocalypse rising…the idea of a soft landing is ridiculous….”

    #115905
    Bill7
    Participant

    An interesting article from seven years ago on induced or forced infantilization:

    https://boingboing.net/2015/05/21/simon-pegg-discusses-geek-cult.html

    Googie’s stuff is a good example. I don’t use it, but I’m sure it uses me (and you).

    #115906
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Pepe Escobar has a colourful style:

    ‘So, across the West, the reigning perception – frantically fomented by psyops experts – is that the Russian military were hit by that “hammer blow” and will hardly recover.

    Kharkov was preciously timed – as General Winter is around the corner; the Ukraine issue was already suffering from public opinion fatigue; and the propaganda machine needed a boost to turbo-lubricate the multi-billion dollar weaponizing rat line.

    Yet Kharkov may have forced Moscow’s hand to increase the pain dial. That came via a few well-placed Mr. Khinzals leaving the Black Sea and the Caspian to present their business cards to the largest thermal power plants in northeast and central Ukraine (most of the energy infrastructure is in the southeast).

    Half of Ukraine suddenly lost power and water. Trains came to a halt. If Moscow decides to take out all major Ukraine substations at once, all it takes is a few missiles to totally smash the Ukrainian energy grid – adding a new meaning to “decommunization”: de-energization.

    According to an expert analysis, “if transformers of 110-330 kV are damaged, then it will almost never be possible to put it into operation (…) And if this happens at least at 5 substations at the same time, then everything is kaput. Stone age forever.”

    Russian government official Marat Bashirov was way more colorful: “Ukraine is being plunged into the 19th century. If there is no energy system, there will be no Ukrainian army. The matter of fact is that General Volt came to the war, followed by General Moroz (“frost”).

    And that’s how we might be finally entering “real war” territory – as in Putin’s notorious quip that “we haven’t even started anything yet.”

    The Kharkov game-changer

    #115907
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Bill7

    That partly explains why NZ has ‘children’ in charge, and why all ‘official’ analysis is at the 12-year-old level of thinking, at best. (Often at the three-year-old level of thinking: “I want. Give me.”)

    #115908
    Bill7
    Participant

    I predict that there will be much more in that vein.

    #115909
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    On the theme of 12-year-old level of thinking and analysis that characterises NATOstan governments (and the bullshit churned out by the likes of the Gourdian) Brian Berletic admists he was wrong, and that the Duran was right, a week or so ago.

    It is the measure if a true man or woman to admit one’s errors promptly, unlike the scumbags who govern us, and who double-down on their errors, lies, deceits etc.

    New Atlas reports that more than 40% of the kit that NATOstan nations supplied recently went up in smoke in the Karkov offensive.

    #115910
    Michael Reid
    Participant


    Global climate disruption (GCD) provides the distraction it needs to succeed. While everyone argues whether GCD is anthropogenic or not, the debate obscures the primary fact: whatever GCD is or isn’t happening, we’re rapidly depleting the fuel we need to continue debating such (at this point) nonsensical issues.

    Same, btw, with planned population/economy demolition: population/economy gonna crash either way, with or without Davosian assistance. But we’d rather argue whose fault it is, as if the fault for the fate of a species, and the ecosystems it is inarguably destroying, were that of any-thing/one less than all of us.

    This comment seems accurate to me.

    I hope I am wrong but I expect implosion of the western world and associated population shedding. If this occurs all that matters is can I survive.

    #115911
    aspnaz
    Participant

    King Charles, the palace’s own Greta and just as ugly.

    #115912
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    By all means do hold Desmet’s and Malone’s feet to the fire about who’s to blame for the democidal crisis of humanity, but before jumping to conclusions about motives first read his book [ The Psychology of Totalitarianism]. I think you will discover that he ain’t lettin’ NOBODY off any hooks. He’s basically saying, IMHO, that the good guys and bad guys alike are hanging each other from the SAME hook.

    It is a comforting fiction (and so we comfort ourselves by believing) that this fucked up world is other people’s fault. But the truth of that matter is that the “good guys” are just as ultimately culpable as the baddies are, if not more so. We knew better than to be outright baddies our own selves, but permitting others to be baddies (out of misguided niceness) condemns them to a hell worse than hell . . . and is thus not very nice at all.

    Some problems are only resolvable by going deep, so gird up your whatchamacallits, and read the book to the end. The first two thirds address in finer detail what you’ve probably already gathered in generalized snippets from the internet about Mass Formation. But it’s the final third of the text that separates the pros from the deletants, and serves as a test (as well as an education) of the reader’s relationship to unexcused and unadorned reality.

    I won’t spoil it for you by giving any more of my personal half-assed inadequate synopsis. Just read the damn book.

    P.S.
    Peter Breggin is a good man with a long and heroic record, but that doesn’t make him infallible, and I think he’s mistaken about Desmet.

    #115913
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Spiritually dead CULTures, collectively trapped in self-centered trances, *always* end the same…

    By all means do hold Desmet’s and Malone’s feet to the fire about who’s to blame for the democidal crisis of humanity, but before jumping to conclusions about motives first read his book [ The Psychology of Totalitarianism]. I think you will discover that he ain’t lettin’ NOBODY off any hooks. He’s basically saying, IMHO, that the good guys and bad guys alike are hanging each other from the SAME hook.

    #115914
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    TTATT -The Turds At The Top- are weaponising the entire financial and economic system to go back in time to a feudal system. Anyone who opposes this is deemed to be a ‘terrorist’.

    #115915
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Veracious Poet.

    Some time ago I encountered the term ‘recovering from industrial civilisation’, used by people who had left the Matrix but were still suffering trauma from having lived in it.

    As previously discussed, the insane culture of TTATT have instutionalised insanity, and made it the norm.

    .

    #115916
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    #115917
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

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