Sep 232022
 
 September 23, 2022  Posted by at 8:54 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Max Ernst The Angel of the home or the Triumph of Surrealism 1937

 

Nuclear War Is Possible – US Commander (RT)
Ex-US General Warns Russia Of ‘Devastating Strike’ (RT)
Serbian President Warns of “Great World Conflict” Within Two Months (SN)
Medvedev Responds To Military Threat From Ex-US General (RT)
Von der Leyen Is Completely Wrong About anti-Russia Sanctions (Timofeev)
EU To Impose New Sanctions On Moscow – Borrell (RT)
Brussels’ Sanctions Caused Crisis – Orban (RT)
Austria To Reject Russian Gas Ban – FM (RT)
Ukraine: 5-Year Prison Sentence For Anyone Voting In “Sham Referendums” (ZH)
Ukraine Perfect Testing Ground For New US Weapons – Kiev (RT)
Lavrov Puts Spotlight On ‘Impunity’ In Ukraine (RT)
Jamie Dimon: Stopping Oil And Gas Production ‘Road To Hell’ For US (NYP)
A Greek Watergate Threatens the West (Varoufakis)
‘He’s Done’: How Donald Trump’s Legal Woes Have Just Gotten A Lot Worse (G.)

 

 

Poster seen in Amsterdam

 

 

“There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks. It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.”

 

 

 

 

Matt Walsh

 

 

CO2

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..the Kremlin would “without a doubt use all available means to protect Russia and our people..”

Nuclear War Is Possible – US Commander (RT)

Navy Admiral Charles Richard, commander of US Strategic Command, declared on Wednesday that for the first time since the end of the Cold War, the US faces the possibility of nuclear war with a peer-level opponent. Speaking at an Air Force-organized conference in Maryland, Richard claimed that the US would have to prepare to escalate quickly against possible opponents, including to defend the United States itself. “All of us in this room are back in the business of contemplating…direct armed conflict with a nuclear-capable peer,” he said, according to a Pentagon summary of his comments. “We have not had to do that in over 30 years.”

“Russia and China can escalate to any level of violence that they choose in any domain with any instrument of power worldwide,” he continued. “We just haven’t faced competitors and opponents like that in a long time.” In the eyes of Moscow, the US is currently locked in a proxy conflict with Russia in Ukraine, and has steadily escalated its commitment of weapons, intelligence and financial assistance to Kiev since Russian troops entered Ukraine in February. Russia’s current nuclear doctrine allows for the use of nuclear weapons in the event of a first nuclear strike on its territory or infrastructure, or if the existence of the Russian state is threatened by either nuclear or conventional weapons. American doctrine allows for a nuclear first strike in “extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies and partners.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated this position on Wednesday, declaring that the Kremlin would “without a doubt use all available means to protect Russia and our people,” should Russian territory be threatened. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also warned that the US was “teetering on the brink” of becoming a direct party in the Ukraine conflict, with Washington risking “a direct collision between nuclear powers.” Similar warnings have come from within the US too, most notably from former President Donald Trump, who declared on Wednesday that the conflict, which he said “should have never happened,” could “end up being World War III.”

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These people appear to think they live in the 1960’s.

Ex-US General Warns Russia Of ‘Devastating Strike’ (RT)

The US could destroy Russia’s Crimea-based Black Sea Fleet or its bases on the peninsula if Moscow resorts to using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the former commander of the US Army in Europe, Ben Hodges, has said. In an interview with the Daily Mail on Wednesday, Hodges described the possibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering the deployment of nukes as “very unlikely.” Putin will not do so because “he knows the US will have to respond if Russia uses a nuclear weapon,” he claimed. “The US response may not be nuclear… but could very well be a devastating strike that could, for example, destroy the Black Sea Fleet or destroy Russian bases in Crimea,” Hodges, who was in charge of the US forces in Europe between 2014 and 2018, said.


“So, I think President Putin and those around him will be reluctant to draw the US into the conflict directly.” The comments were made in response to Putin’s address earlier that day, in which he said Russia is fighting “the entire Western military machine” in Ukraine, citing the lavish assistance in lethal aid and intelligence provided to Kiev by the US, UK, EU and others. “If the territorial integrity of our nation is threatened, we will certainly use all the means that we have to defend Russia and our people,”he warned. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Biden administration took Putin’s words “seriously,”but insisted that it was “irresponsible rhetoric for a nuclear power to talk that way.”

Scott Ritter

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“..nuclear war between the United States and Russia would cause two-thirds of the planet to starve to death within two years..”

Serbian President Warns of “Great World Conflict” Within Two Months (SN)

The President of Serbia has warned that the planet is entering into a “great world conflict” that could take place within the next two months. Aleksandar Vucic made the alarming comments during the first day of the UN General Assembly session in New York. “You see a crisis in every part of the world,” Vucic told the Serbian state broadcaster RTS. “I think realistic predictions ought to be even darker,” he added. “Our position is even worse, since the UN has been weakened and the great powers have taken over and practically destroyed the UN order over the past several decades.” The Serbian leader cautioned that the war between Russia and Ukraine had moved on to a far deadlier phase.

“I assume that we’re leaving the phase of the special military operation and approaching a major armed conflict, and now the question becomes where is the line, and whether after a certain time – maybe a month or two, even – we will enter a great world conflict not seen since the Second World War,” he said. Vucic’s remarks were made on the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an immediate “partial mobilization” of troops amounting to 300,000 soldiers. In a public address to the nation, Putin warned that he wasn’t bluffing and that he was prepared to use “all the means at our disposal” to protect Moscow’s territorial integrity. “Now they (the West) are talking about nuclear blackmail,” said Putin. “The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was shelled and also some high positions – representatives of NATO states – who are saying there might be possibility and permissibility to use nuclear weapons against Russia,” he added.

Putin ominously asserted that western powers should “be reminded that our country also has various weapons of destruction, and with regard to certain components they’re even more modern than NATO ones.” As we highlighted last month, a study conducted by Rutgers University found that nuclear war between the United States and Russia would cause two-thirds of the planet to starve to death within two years. 5 billion people would perish, primarily as a result of nuclear detonations causing huge infernos that inject soot into the atmosphere which blocks out the sun and devastates crops. One wonders how a generation that thinks words are “violence” and misgendering someone is stochastic terrorism will react to an intercontinental nuclear war. The mind truly boggles.

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“retired idiots with generals’ stripes” should not attempt to intimidate Moscow..”

Medvedev Responds To Military Threat From Ex-US General (RT)

Moscow may use nuclear weapons to defend its territory, including the Donbass republics and Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, should they decide to join Russia, former president, Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday. He also warned that “retired idiots” in the Western military should not contemplate strikes on Moscow’s naval bases in the Black Sea. Writing on Telegram on Thursday, Medvedev stressed that the referendums, planned for between September 23 and 27, would definitely take place, and “the Donbass republics and other territories would be admitted to Russia.” The former president went on to say that the Russian military would “significantly reinforce” the defenses of all incorporated territories.

He added that to defend its territories, Russia may use “not only its mobilization capabilities, but also any Russian weapons, including strategic nuclear weapons.” Without naming names, Medvedev cautioned that “retired idiots with generals’ stripes” should not attempt to intimidate Moscow by claiming that NATO could attack Crimea, a peninsula that overwhelmingly voted to unite with Russia in 2014 following a coup in Kiev. “Hypersonic [missiles] are sure to hit targets in Europe and the US much faster,” he warned, adding that “the Western establishment and NATO citizens need to understand that Russia has chosen its own path” and there is “no way back.”

On Wednesday, Ben Hodges, the former commander of the US Army in Europe, said that Washington could destroy Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, that’s based in Crimea, or its bases on the peninsula if Moscow resorts to using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. He noted that it’s “very unlikely” that Russian President Vladimir Putin would order to deploy nukes. Last week, Medvedev accused Western “half-wits” from “stupid think tanks” of leading their countries down the road of nuclear Armageddon with their hybrid war against Moscow. He also warned that the “unrestrained pumping of the Kiev regime with the most dangerous types of weapons,” could prompt Russia to move its military campaign to the next level.

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Ivan Timofeev, Valdai Club Programme Director & one of Russia’s leading foreign policy experts.

Von der Leyen Is Completely Wrong About anti-Russia Sanctions (Timofeev)

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has, as could be expected, called for new sanctions against Russia in connection with the forthcomingreferendums in Donbass and two regions of Ukraine. These concern the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics – which have been de-facto self-governing since 2014 – and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. In her opinion, the penalties already imposed on Russia are having an impact.”The sanctions have been very successful. If you look at the Russian economy, its industry is in tatters,” the politician asserted. Let’s allow ourselves to argue a little with Ms. von der Leyen. The key measure of the effectiveness of sanctions is whether they change the political course of the target country.

This criterion has been well researched in both academic and applied literature and few people have any doubts about its veracity. However, Russia has not changed its political course in Ukraine under the influence of the large-scale sanctions of the EU, US and other initiators. Moreover, its position is hardening, as evidenced by this week’s announcements of both a partial mobilization and the referendums. Thus, we can say that the measures are actually having a negative effect in terms of what they are supposed to be doing. Apparently, Ms. von der Leyen links effectiveness to the amount of pain inflicted. In other words, she believes that the greater it is, the better. There are problems here, too. The damage is indeed large. But we are not just sitting still and feeling sorry for ourselves. We are adapting very energetically.

Now, you can criticize Russia’s domestic financial policy and question import substitution as much as you like. And they will not, of course, make ‘everything as it was.’ But it is clear that the economy is shrinking much less than expected, that inflation has, at least so far, been brought under control, and that adaptations in sourcing, helped by domestic production, are mitigating the effects of the sanctions. The economy is simply becoming different. It is changing in terms of focus and quality. In a number of sectors it will “run slower” or limp along. But Russiawill continue to live. Of course, we have already heard the words “the Russian economy is in tatters,” from US President Barack Obama. That was in 2015. Seven years ago.

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10,000 sanctions. A silly game.

EU To Impose New Sanctions On Moscow – Borrell (RT)

The EU has agreed to slap new sanctions on Russia “as soon as possible” over plans to hold referendums in the Donbass republics and Russian-controlled regions in Ukraine on whether to unite with Russia, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said on Wednesday. Speaking after an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers, Josep Borrell said that the bloc had made a “political” decision to impose new sectoral and individual sanctions on Russia. “These restrictive measures would be brought forward as soon as possible against Russia in coordination with partners,” he said. While he did not clarify the details of the new sanctions, he hinted that they would hit the Russian economy, especially the technology sector, while the EU would also blacklist a number of individuals.


He also noted that the bloc would provide Ukraine with security assistance for “as long as it takes.” “Today it’s clear that we will continue to increase our military support and continue to provide arms to Ukraine,” he added. Borrell also commented on recent developments in the Ukraine conflict, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of “trying to destroy Ukraine” and organizing partial mobilization to support what he called “illegal referenda.” On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization which calls on 300,000 reservists to take part in the conflict with Ukraine. The move comes a day after the two Donbass republics and Russian-controlled Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions decided to hold referendums from September 23 to 27, on whether to unite with Russia.

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Waiting for the first threats to throw him out.

Brussels’ Sanctions Caused Crisis – Orban (RT)

The EU leadership caused a continent-wide crisis by imposing sanctions on Russian energy, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. The Eurosceptic politician criticized Brussels on his Facebook page on Wednesday evening as he announced a meeting with members of the ruling coalition in the parliament. According to local media, during the closed-door gathering, he blamed EU bureaucrats for the hardships that member states, including Hungary, currently face. Orban told MPs from his Fidesz party and the allied Christian Democrats (KDNP) that if the EU’s sanctions on Russia were dropped, gas prices would go down by one-half, and as a result, inflation would also decline, Magyar Nemzet daily reported.

The Hungarian PM said the EU leadership promised in early summer that the sanctions would hurt Russia’s economy, not people in the EU, but the opposite has occurred, according to the report. Orban predicted that dropping the sanctions would allow the EU to avoid a recession. In November, there will be a meaningful opportunity for the EU to reconsider the restrictions on trading with Russia, Orban reportedly said, and the ruling Hungarian coalition should work hard to have them lifted by the end of the year. The prime minister also lashed out at the Hungarian opposition, accusing them of backing Brussels’ policies without giving a second thought to the damage they are causing to the country, Magyar Nemzet said.

He also outlined a number of measures, such as energy subsidies, which the Fidesz–KDNP government is taking to alleviate the effects of the skyrocketing prices, the newspaper reported. Orban, who was re-elected in a landslide victory in April, is an outspoken critic of the EU leadership. He has called the bloc the main loser in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, in which it sided with Kiev. The sanctions were imposed by Brussels in retaliation for Russia’s decision to send troops into Ukraine in late February.

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Hungary, Serbia, Austria. Next!

“in case of further steps, primarily in the energy sector, with regard to gas, there will be a clear ‘no’ from Austria.”

Austria To Reject Russian Gas Ban – FM (RT)

Vienna will say an emphatic ‘no’ to proposals of a ban on Russian natural gas imports, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Thursday, noting that the already adopted EU sanctions packages are comprehensive and may require clarification. “I have said in the past that we should discuss this [possible tightening of sanctions] in an appropriate way, namely behind closed doors, but yes – we have already adopted six large-scale sanctions packages, and now we can think about closing the loopholes,” the FM told ORF while answering a question on whether Vienna’s position has changed regarding the possible strengthening of sanctions against Russia. Schallenberg added that “in case of further steps, primarily in the energy sector, with regard to gas, there will be a clear ‘no’ from Austria.”


Austria, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy and sources around 80% of natural gas from Russia, has been opposing the EU’s plan to restrict imports from Moscow. The Federation of Austrian Industries earlier warned that the suspension of Russian gas supplies would be “a serious blow” to the welfare of the Austrian people as it threatens some 300,000 jobs. According to the president of the federation, Georg Knill, almost the entire food industry depends on the supply of the “blue fuel.” He stated in May that he saw danger not so much in the fact that Russia could “turn off the taps,”but in the decision of the European Union to stop importing Russian gas. In March, the EU rolled out a plan to reduce dependence on Russian gas by two thirds before the end of the year. The proposal is part of a wider plan to become independent from all Russian fossil fuels “well before 2030.”

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Voting Sep 23-27. Percentages predicted run from 80% to 95%, depending on the region. Russia will annex them.

Ukraine: 5-Year Prison Sentence For Anyone Voting In “Sham Referendums” (ZH)

Starting last month Ukrainian lawmakers began seeking to implement severe consequences for those participating in Russia-sponsored referendums in occupied territories of Ukraine. For example, a law is being pushed through parliament which criminalizes obtaining a Russian passport in temporarily occupied territories, Ukrainian sources reported last week, according to Yahoo News. Proposed possible punishments have included losing Ukrainian citizenship, or even lengthy jail sentences. But other officials have argued for a more compromising approach given the necessity of survival in occupied areas. But now the Ukrainian government has reiterated its willingness to impose steep penalties for even participating in any Kremlin-sponsored vote to join the Russian Federation.

Russian President Putin’s Wednesday morning address announcing partial mobilization also affirmed plans to move forward with referendums in the LPR, DPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Ukraine has responded by warning its citizens that any official who promotes or organizes the voting faces a “prison term of five to ten years” – as well as possible asset seizure by the state, and being barred from employment in select positions for up to 15 years. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk announced this week that a five year prison term is currently being considered for anyone caught participating in “sham referenda” by government authorities:

“Some lawyers believe that those actions fall under Article 110 part 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, ‘Infringement on Ukraine’s territorial integrity,’ punishable with a prison term of up to five years,” she told the Strana portal on Tuesday. She further called on citizens currently in occupied to territories to “leave, if possible.” Vereshchuk was cited further as follows according to a Russian media translation of her words: “This [may] mean imprisonment for up to five years. So, once again I strongly advise residents of the temporarily occupied territories: do not take a [Russian] passport, do not go to referendums, do not cooperate with the occupiers and leave, if it’s possible,” the official stated.

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Come test them on my country!

Ukraine Perfect Testing Ground For New US Weapons – Kiev (RT)

US defense companies should send their new weapons to Ukraine so they can be tested in actual combat against Russian forces, Kiev’s deputy defense minister, Vladimir Gavrilov, has said. Gavrilov made the suggestion during a speech before hundreds of American defense industry representatives and military acquisitions personnel at the Future Force Capabilities Conference and Exhibition in Austin, Texas on Wednesday. “If you have some ideas, or some pilot projects to be tested before mass manufacturing, you can send it to us and we will explain how to do it. And in the end you will get the stamp, proved by the war in Ukraine. You will sell it easy,” he said, as cited by the Military Times.

According to the deputy defense minister, startup companies, including those involved in anti-drone and anti-jamming equipment, have already brought new technologies to the Ukrainian battlefield. “And they come back with a product that is competitive in the market now because it was tested in a combat zone,” Gavrilov said, without revealing the companies that have worked with Ukraine in this capacity. His comments were made on the day Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization, which he said is necessary because Russia has been fighting “the entire Western military machine” in Ukraine. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu later stated that around 300,000 reservists are planned to be called up.

In view of this shift in Russia’s tactics, Kiev will require more counter-drone and electronic warfare technologies, armored vehicles, and long-range anti-tank and precision fire weapons, Gavrilov said. Ukraine is now almost entirely dependent on weapons supplied by the US, UK, EU, and other nations, according to Shoigu, as most of the Soviet-made hardware it had before the fighting began in late February has been destroyed by Russian forces.

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8 years, not 6 months.

“..he may be a son of a b*tch, but he is our son of a b*tch,”

Lavrov Puts Spotlight On ‘Impunity’ In Ukraine (RT)

The current crisis in Ukraine was brought about by the West systematically covering up the crimes of the Kiev government since the 2014 coup, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the UN Security Council on Thursday. Lavrov noted that “impunity” is a good term for what has been happening in Ukraine, not since February but since 2014, when US-backed nationalists and neo-Nazis seized power by force. No one has ever been held responsible for the murders on the Maidan, the burning of peaceful protesters in Odessa, or the assassinations of dissidents, he pointed out. Civilians of Donbass have been bombed mercilessly for years and dubbed terrorists and even subhuman, simply for refusing to accept the results of the coup and insisting on their basic human right to speak Russian, Lavrov said.

The Russian foreign minister presented a long list of human rights violations by Kiev that went ignored by various European and global human rights groups, from “burning books, just like in Nazi Germany” to using banned ‘petal’ land mines against civilians this summer. “Such outrages became possible and remain unpunished due to the fact that the US and its allies, with the connivance of international human rights institutions, have been systematically covering up the crimes of the Kiev regime for eight years, basing their policy towards [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky based on the well-known American principle: he may be a son of a b*tch, but he is our son of a b*tch,” said Lavrov.

This was a reference to an apocryphal quote attributed to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and thought to apply either to Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua or Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic – both US-backed dictators. Lavrov also accused the Ukrainian armed forces of using civilians as human shields and said that Russia and the Donbass republics are fighting against the “Western military machine” in Ukraine, with the US and its allies perilously close to being overt participants in the conflict. Moscow has shared evidence demonstrating that the West has sought to turn Ukraine into a forward outpost that could threaten Russia’s security, Lavrov told the UN. “I can assure you, we will not let that happen.”

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Tlaib literally has no idea what she’s talking about. You can’t “save the climate” by bankrupting your economy.

Jamie Dimon: Stopping Oil And Gas Production ‘Road To Hell’ For US (NYP)

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said slamming the brakes on new oil and gas production “would be the road to hell for America” after Rep. Rashida Tlaib asked him to divest in oil. Dimon’s comments came during a House hearing where the far-left Michigan Democrat asked him and other top bank execs if they would commit to no longer investing funds into oil and gas companies to slow down climate change. “Please answer with a simple yes or no, does your bank have a policy against funding new oil and gas products,” Tlaib asked, with Dimon up first. “Absolutely not and that would be the road to hell for America,” Dimon shot back.


Tlaib then slammed JPMorgan-Chase and circled back to criticism Dimon leveled against President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt during the hearing. She encouraged people to cancel their accounts with the major bank. “Sir, you know what, everybody that got relief from student loans — has a bank account with your bank — should probably take out their account and close their account,” an irritated Tlaib said. “The fact that you’re not even there to help relieve many of the folks that are in debt, extreme debt, because of student loan debt and you’re out there criticizing it,” Tlaib said before moving on to the next bank executive on the panel, Citi CEO Jane Fraser, who offered a more diplomatic response.

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Note: this case would be non-existant if the politician who was tapped was not also a European parliament member.

A Greek Watergate Threatens the West (Varoufakis)

The sequence of events leading to the exposure of Greece’s Watergate scandal began in July 2019, immediately after Mr Mitsotakis won the last general election on behalf of New Democracy, our conservative party. One of the very first decrees he issued, as incoming Prime Minister, was one that gave his office direct control over and responsibility for EYP. “Why on earth is the PM taking over the supervision of EYP?”, I remember a parliamentary colleague asking me that very day. It was, indeed, a curious move. Our trepidation only grew following two personnel choices. First, Mitsotakis appointed a nephew of his, Grigoris Dimitriadis, to oversee EYP on his behalf. Secondly, he chose as EYP’s new head Panagiotis Kontoleon, the CEO of the Greek franchise of the private security firm G4 — a man with no record of public service, and whose appointment Mitsotakis could only complete after amending the relevant law to remove the prerequisite that the EYP chief holds a postgraduate degree.

Given his concerted and very public efforts to take complete control of the state intelligence agency, something no other PM had ever done, it became impossible to shift blame to some other minister once the faeces hit the proverbial fan. Of the more than 17,000 wiretaps that EYP admits it has placed during the last year alone, two cases are at the heart of the current scandal. The first is that of Thanasis Koukakis, an investigative journalist who dared look into Greek shipowners’ loans that had been illegally written off by the Bank of Piraeus (one of the banks that Greek taxpayers have had to repeatedly bailout). It turns out that Koukakis was one of EYP’s “subjects of interest”, an outrage that would have probably gone unnoticed without the second, higher profile, case.

It was this case that broke the camel’s back: an investigation begun by the European Parliament’s IT department accidentally revealed that Nikos Androulakis, an MEP belonging to PASOK (the formerly dominant party in Greek politics), was being phone-tapped by EYP. It was explosive news because, at the time his phone was tapped, Androulakis was contesting the leadership of PASOK — a contest that he, eventually, won. The significance of that contest cannot be understated, since its outcome mattered a great deal to Mitsotakis and his governing New Democracy party. Since the middle of the pandemic, opinion polls have persistently suggested that the next election, which must take place by July 2023, will result in a hung parliament. While Mitsotakis’ New Democracy seemed likely to remain the largest party, it was not even close to an absolute majority. PASOK, in third place, was therefore positioned as kingmaker: whoever the party chose to side with would end up in government.

The stakes of PASOK’s leadership race suddenly seemed very high. Of the three main candidates, the one that would almost certainly choose to back New Democracy and Mitsotakis to form a government was Andreas Loverdos — an MP and former minister who had served gladly in New Democracy-PASOK coalition governments between 2011 and 2015. Every newspaper, radio and television station supporting Mitsotakis was rooting for Loverdos to beat Androulakis in the PASOK leadership primary. Is it any wonder that the revelation of EYP’s surveillance of Androulakis was big news? In a period during which the ruling party was rooting for Androulakis’s opponent, the nation’s spy agency — which ruling party’s leader and his nephew controlled and supervised to the full — was tapping Androulakis’ phone!

Read more …

Let’s turn to the Guardian for the real news.

Letitia James ran on “get Trump” and then spent her entire tenure as NY AG trying to “get Trump”, already the most investigated and prosecuted person in the history of the US. She will fail just like the others.

Meanwhile: why did James make this a civil, not a criminal case?

And: if Trump defrauded banks and pension funds, why did none of them ever file a case?

‘He’s Done’: How Donald Trump’s Legal Woes Have Just Gotten A Lot Worse (G.)

Donald Trump’s legal perils have become insurmountable and could snuff out the former US president’s hopes of an election-winning comeback, according to political analysts and legal experts. On Wednesday, Trump and three of his adult children were accused of lying to tax collectors, lenders and insurers in a “staggering” fraud scheme that routinely misstated the value of his properties to enrich themselves. The civil lawsuit, filed by New York’s attorney general, came as the FBI investigates Trump’s holding of sensitive government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and a special grand jury in Georgia considers whether he and others attempted to influence state election officials after his defeat there by Joe Biden.

The former US president has repeatedly hinted that he intends to run for the White House again in 2024. But the cascade of criminal, civil and congressional investigations could yet derail that bid. “He’s done,” said Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University, in Washington, who has accurately predicted every presidential election since 1984. “He’s got too many burdens, too much baggage to be able to run again even presuming he escapes jail, he escapes bankruptcy. I’m not sure he’s going to escape jail.” After a three-year investigation, Letitia James, the New York attorney general, alleged that Trump provided fraudulent statements of his net worth and false asset valuations to obtain and satisfy loans, get insurance benefits and pay lower taxes. Offspring Don Jr, Ivanka and Eric were also named as defendants.

At a press conference, James riffed on the title of Trump’s 1987 memoir and business how-to book, The Art of the Deal. “This investigation revealed that Donald Trump engaged in years of illegal conduct to inflate his net worth, to deceive banks and the people of the great state of New York. Claiming you have money that you do not have does not amount to ‘the art of the deal’. It’s the art of the steal,” she said. Her office requested that the former president pay at least $250m in penalties and that his family be banned from running businesses in the state. James cannot bring criminal charges against Trump in this civil investigation but she said she was referring allegations of criminal fraud to federal prosecutors in Manhattan as well as the Internal Revenue Service.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phone vs life
https://twitter.com/i/status/1573015092828180480

 

 

 

 

Correa
https://twitter.com/i/status/1572883525451370501

 

 

Monarchs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1573185623036420096

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle September 23 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 118 total)
  • Author
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  • #116577

    Max Ernst The Angel of the home or the Triumph of Surrealism 1937   • Nuclear War Is Possible – US Commander (RT) • Ex-US General Warns Russia Of
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle September 23 2022]

    #116578
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Western civilisation (an oxymoron, IMO) is just so fucked up as to be inoperable for all practical purposes…
    Failures at every turn; problem? Call up the military…bomb the shit out of them) them being the problem country du jour…
    It is a cycle and until that cycle is broken we will continue the march to war and end of times…

    #116579
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard University, noted that the civil component ‘involves things of particular significance to Trump and his family and his organisation, namely their ability to defraud the public, to defraud banks, to defraud insurance companies, and to continue to subsist through corruption. Without all of that corruption, the entire Trump empire is involved in something like meltdown.’

    This is exactly why I always thought it was a mistake to put so much faith in DJT as some kind of deliverer from the “Swamp” of the Deep State and from the sorrows of declining empire: He has always been far too vulnerable to being taken out by the establishment on account of being the corrupt king of a fetid swamp of his own making! That said, I would still rather have DJT in Whitehouse, fully knowing what a terrible thing that is to say, than the current “Joe Biden” cabal.

    #116580
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    ‘MIT climate scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen laughs at the sheer lunacy of declaring trace CO2 to be a pollutant: “What kind pollutant is it? You get rid of it and you die’

    The sheer lunacy of these fuckwits ‘experts’ is exasperating!

    Let Richard Lindzen sit in a sealed room and experience CO2 build-up to the point he passes out and then dies of hypercabonation..

    Or put him in a submarine with no CO2 removal system and see how long he lasts.

    Follow the money….

    .

    #116581

    That’s not what Lindzen was talking about. Following that kind of logic, a high concentration of oxygen will kill you as well.

    #116582
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Following on from the previous thread, it is useful to describe modern finance as Ponzi, simply because to describe it as off-the-planet-surreal may not immediately convey the criminal nature of modern finance. Ponzi is a simple term that anyone with a modicum of knowledge understands. And its criminal implications are obvious.

    Perhaps hyper-Ponzi would be a fitting term to describe what we have been witnessing in recent years -beyond Ponzi.

    I must admit I have lost track of how many quadrillions of dollars of derivatives have been created out of thin air by banks and financial trading houses. And there is nothing to support any of it, other than the bullshit churned out by politicians and central bankers. The declining energy supply brings the house-of-cards crashing down.

    So, will the central banks create a few hundred billion over the next few days to prop up the collapsing markets for just a little bit longer? Or let them fall?

    The raising of interest rates suggests the central banks know they are at the end of the line and will crash the system over the coming months (weeks?)

    The market crash we are now witnessing coalesces with the housing crash, the economic crash, the social and the environmental crash that are a natural consequence of decades of legalised fraud.

    No wonder they want war.

    #116583

    Tribe is a drooling anti-Trumper, ignore him. And about Trump’s corruption: let them prove it. They’ve been at it for 7 years. Nada. It’s embarrassing. But zealots and Democrats are not easily embarrassed.

    Real estate is a grey field. What’s a building, a development project worth? Everyone exaggerates and/or downplays where it suits them. The higher the numbers involved, the more they will do it. Same as you and everyone else, on your tax filings.

    That no lenders have filed cases, and Trump has not spent time in prison, should say enough. The lenders know this is how the business works. People like Tribe and Laetitia James do not.

    When you apply for a loan, lenders want to know what assets you have as collateral, and what the potential is for the project. It’s just business. If you try to cheat them, no loan for you.

    If you do not understand this is how the industry works, it’s easy to convince you that it is all corruption and cheating.

    #116584
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    ‘The U.S. government has become a master of deceit.

    It’s all documented, too.

    This is a government that lies, cheats, steals, spies, kills, maims, enslaves, breaks the laws, overreaches its authority, and abuses its power at almost every turn; treats its citizens like faceless statistics and economic units to be bought, sold, bartered, traded, and tracked; and wages wars for profit, jails its own people for profit, and has no qualms about spreading its reign of terror abroad.

    Worse, this is a government that has become almost indistinguishable from the evil it claims to be fighting, whether that evil takes the form of terrorism, torture, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, murder, violence, theft, pornography, scientific experimentations or some other diabolical means of inflicting pain, suffering and servitude on humanity.

    With every passing day, it becomes painfully clear that this is not a government that can be trusted with your life, your loved ones, your livelihood or your freedoms.’

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/masters-deceit-governments-propaganda-fear-mind-control-brain-warfare

    I must add that the government of NZ (Adern) is a government that cannot be trusted at all on any matter, and is effectively at war with the populace.

    What limits the Adern government is not the lack of evilness of its lead characters but the lack of resources compared to the US.

    #116585
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Can’t believe I’m reading this:

    ‘European Union ministers agreed to push ahead with new sanctions targeting Russia at an informal meeting on Wednesday, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said.”

    Because if the first 10,000 sanctions don’t work… New motto: “Make Russia stronger again.”

    Not like I really want to write this again, but war is a psy-op. Okay, if Russia woke up and took straight to the Polish border, Europe would go nuts, short and long term. Buy in for endless arms, slander, mobilization, all that. If they didn’t, of course, they’d just sit as Ukraine was turned Nazi by the CIA, racist anti-Russian, and then given nukes for Moscow. So they had to go somewhere in the middle.
    Same with Russia itself, like Americans or other countries: Russia eats all this pro-western CIA Netflix crap, and if Putin mobilized a million men for Ukraine he WOULD have been an expansionist, a Stalinesque dictator for merely overreacting. By having this silly “Special Action” first, he absorbed the Russian people and support into the war, as they could see the existential threat of Azovs and Ukraine, the sheer insanity and hostility of the West. That outrageous as it seems, Putin was NOT kidding. The whole West and all of NATO really WAS trying to kill them all and steal everything they have. Like half a TRILLION dollars they could use, no different than Afghanistan, where they lock the money then force-starve the children for sport and pleasure.

    So at some point they’ve got all they’ll get out of running the low-level Op. Europe is now badly weakened yet completely unmobilized. Russians are generally on board and willing to see the war as necessary. Yet his generals and war tactics are never going to want to fight a slow war – another thing the big-mouthed Americans told them – as every day in war someone dies and the enemy gets more chances. It’s actually hurting not helping. So they would have done it all immediately. Now they can. When? After the first part. How many? More than the first part. And again, they seem to have chosen the bare minimum, leaving enormous resources at home.

    More – and more dangerously – they have decided to stop f’n around with the West and their “long war” plan they so universally advertise. (Loose Lips Sink Ships) So they ALREADY have all Donbass in their sphere: even now they will claim security for the vote. After the vote, they will be Russia. And if you invade Russia, they’ll nuke you. Your move, NATO.

    The point with NATO, and Europe, is to prove they are paper tigers. They don’t exist. They won’t do, help, or attack anything, also because they’re completely broke and also entirely discredited. In fact, their job is to sap and steal everything, undermine every election and security they can find. I would have thought that would be obvious to every human on earth but apparently not. So if NATO just allows it this annex, then Russia does it again out to Odessa, then Europe collapses doing nothing…that’s very bad. It finally delivers this message you should have got 10 years ago. NATO IS DEATH.

    So to me, that’s the plan, and maybe they’re as surprised as we are that so many Ukrainians were willing to run into gunfire, so many Europeans were passive, and EU markets and banking have avoided collapse. Oh well. That’s war for you, your enemy never accommodates. But Europe is clearly in TERRIBLE position, and this winter won’t be great. I can’t see much more now as I’m not a chess player, but I can see the board as it stands now.

    If rumor is right, they WILL try something, can’t help it, and Russia WILL tsunami NY, level NATO bases, etc, and NATO will do nothing. Because they can’t. Didn’t we already see they sent all (visible) weapons?

    “I assume that we’re leaving the phase of the special military operation and approaching a major armed conflict, and now the question becomes where is the line, and whether after a certain time – maybe a month or two, even – we will enter a great world conflict” –Serbia

    He agrees with me and knows a lot more.

    Russia Panic Story: That worked well. Apparently it’s so real that all the footage was fake. I can’t tell but a spot check of the Finland border was normal, the video was old stock. The plane tickets were indeed high…but if you bought a ticket for tomorrow it was basically normal, etc. Which would make sense in 20 ways.
    One, Who in Russia has money and passports to just pop about the planet?
    Two, if they did, the West wouldn’t allow them, shut off their visa and credit cards, as we well-know 6 months ago,
    Three, they’re not in danger, as it’s MORE dangerous and without heat and food in Europe, not Moscow. I’m going to flee to Holland to sit in a cold, dark apartment, to be harassed because I’m NOT one of their city-running drug lords?
    Four, they can’t take their money with them, in general but certainly in a war. Were they going to convert it to Euros???
    Five, they are conscripting practically no one, only “vets”, previously trained, men of military age, and only under 1%.
    Six, there aren’t enough Russians to MAKE a traffic jam.

    We knew all that. We knew Europe wouldn’t allow Russians through and arrest them on sight. But it’s Thursday so suddenly they DO let them through in traffic jams? Pick one. Squirrel!

    Euro Gas:
    “UAE Accelerates Development of Huge Gas Field as High Prices Persist: ADNOC is committed to unlocking the UAE’s abundant natural gas reserves to enable domestic gas self-sufficiency”

    I thought we didn’t have any energy! Our only option was to kill our kids with a hammer because there’s no resources! TINA. No. We have options. Here a well-known, well-drilled gas-rich place hasn’t even bothered to open the field yet. And you know, funny thing: that single strip of land that’s the Syrian gas transit route still has American soldiers sitting all over it. Because when we spend 10 years in a war, then 10 years building the pipeline, it’s because there’s only a few months of gas in the field and we’re all depleted and stuff. Yup, no oil left on the planet! How long do you think that pipe is filled to pay for all the trouble? 20 years? Too short. 40 years? At least. 60 years, like the Alaskan? Almost certainly. THEY are proving what is real. I’m just pointing it out.

    The Concession area is expected to produce over 1.5Billion standard cubic feet per day (bscfd) of natural gas, as well as condensate and oil.”

    Technip Energies Awarded FEED Update Contract for the Ghasha Development in UAE

    That’s 550Bcft per year. France uses 1,500bcft/year. One part of one field is a third of France or all of Belgium.

    https://www.worldometers.info/gas/gas-consumption-by-country/

    “Thus, we can say that the measures are actually having a negative effect in terms of what they are supposed to be doing.”

    No. Unlike us normal people, they WANT it to be hardened, because that creates hot, active WAR. (Wargasm!) So if she wants WWIII – and she does – this insures it. THEY won’t die, what do they care? Hunter and the Bush girlz won’t die. YOU will die. But they wanted you, their citizens to die, every day for 50 years and have done everything possible to do it if you hadn’t noticed. So every day you’re killed, they like it better. Sheds demand, sheds load.

    Am I kidding? “Rep. Rashida Tlaib asked [all American Banks] to divest in oil.”

    No oil at this point, untransitioned, unprepared, equals Deagle’s 2/3rds dead in America in a few years. Conclusion: Tlaib likes dead people and wants you to be one of them. She is doing everything in her power to make that a reality.

    “‘He’s Done’: How Donald Trump’s Legal Woes Have Just Gotten A Lot Worse (G.)”
    PicGroundhogDay
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdNEQjaWAAIhnPN?format=jpg&name=small

    Bombshell! Walls are closing in!

    That always works until they need “Legal Evidence” in a court of law. There are a few places left where facts and evidence still apply.

    So seriously, this is all they could find? That he’s a “businessman”? Well to them that is a firing squad, so…

    You see, business is a hanging offense, because to the Left, STEALING is the one true way. We get rich by finding oppressed, productive workers and STEALING from them. “FROM each according to his ability…” If you make, do, help anything, YOU are the target. If you consume, waste, sloth, victim anything, YOU are the winner! Because these guys make the rules, and they are stupid, wasteful, lazy people, and that’s the only way they can get into Harvard Business and bankrupt two oil companies and a baseball team. If they had to take their PROPER consequences, they’d be a janitor at the local motel and King of the Road.

    “Shellenberger: Battery Deaths Put Nuclear Safety in Contex: Lithium batteries kill many more people than nuclear plants. Why, then, aren’t we scared of them?”

    That is a great question. And mysterious. I said the same thing about Covid. People fear dying of sharks while eating that extra hamburger. But I’m sure Tesla has killed more people in 5 years than every U.S. nuclear power plant combined.

    #116586
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Yes indeed, a high concentration of oxygen will kill you.

    Think of those poor sods who were subjected to completely the wrong protocols when being treated for ‘Covid-19’. Many died from hyperoxygenation and the free radicals that were generated in the bloodstream, as described in the ‘Spartacus’ article of year ago.

    Luckily, air is 79% almost completely inert nitrogen and only 21% oxygen 🙂

    And fortunately it is only 0.04% highly spectrally active CO2. If it were much more than that the Earth would be like Venus, with an average surface temperature of about 400oC.

    That’s why James Hansen quit his studies of the atmosphere of Venus and focused on the Earth’s atmosphere instead. And why he gave his dire warning to the world [ignored, of course] in 1988. 🙁

    #116587
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks. It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.”

    I’m a little lost at this. Which men? Which women? So there are no women doctors? It’s male doctors taking control of her body? To do what? Make her clean the house? Or maybe it’s the law. Because there are no women Congressmen and Governors? I guess when gender is optional, a state of mind, then all the women legislators who are against abortion are actually men. Or is it the judges? Because there are no women judges? Not that some of them on the Supreme Court voted both for and against, and are presumably actual people?

    So if women are against abortion, women are the doctors, women are the legislators, women are the judges, women are the government, women are the billionaires and PACs, then what “Men” are taking control of what “Women”?

    Ohhhh, I’ve got it: it’s because all women are helpless little child victims who are subhuman automotons of men, having no agency of their own. Because that’s YOUR belief, as this quote shows. Otherwise, this quote would make no logical sense.

    The Left hates women and minorities more than cancer, and kill them just as fast. Pay attention to what they say, and what they do. Well, Abrams herself says here women are unfit to be elected. I’m just following her lead.

    #116588
    Redneck
    Participant

    The Ukraine/Russia thing has gone beyond stupid. The “referendum” is being done so Russia can try to scare NATO with it’s nuclear bluff. The Russians did not have the balls to execute one of the foreign mercenaries and the Azov commanders are being allowed to go to Turkey in a forty Russians to one hundred and forty Uky swap! The Russians are total pansies , the old Soviet fire in the belly is gone , the airports are packed with young men trying to leave. What an embarrassment for the Russian people. The debates in Russia are a real eye opener , the Russians are more or at least as disgusting as the Banderas with their calls for the total extermination of all Ukranians. My god , what insanity.

    #116589
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Luckily, air is 79% almost completely inert nitrogen”

    That can’t be right: look at Holland. “Science” is trying to erase every human on earth to reduce nitrogen as well, because: Science!™ Killing people since 1687.

    “”I think we owe a great debt of gratitude to science…Science has in many ways helped ease the suffering which was more than likely caused by Science” — Jon Stewart

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein Warning you since 1818 to stop punching yourself in the dick.

    #116590
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    The drive to breath is independent of carbon dioxide, CO2, with few exceptions…
    _Haldane

    #116591
    Red
    Participant

    As of Sept. 21, 2021, there were 132 cargo ships at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Dozens of container ships were anchored or adrift off the coast. As of Aug 30, 2022, that number has dwindled to only 8 ships waiting off Southern California. The end of goods backing up in ports on the west coast is a sign we are moving on. Danielle DiMartino Booth recently stated, “We have never seen the collapse of the magnitude that we are witnessing in imports. That is always a tail-tale sign that you are already looking through the rear-view mirror at recession.”

    https://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2022/09/where-have-all-ships-gone-signs-of.html

    #116592
    Red
    Participant

    First it must be said that Russia and China are terrible at propaganda. Just hopeless. They are so lousy at propaganda, they have basically given up. In today’s propaganda war with the West, they have failed miserably and lost.

    However History is written by the Victors, and all objective evidence today indicates that Eurasia (more inclusively, the BRICS+) will inevitably prevail in today’s new Cold War (short of global nuclear war – in which case everybody dies).

    In the bad old days, official declarations from the lofty heights of the Soviet leadership or Communist Party of China delivered on downwards to their citizens were blunt, high-handed and frequently contradicted reality. They had no idea how to carefully craft persuasive messages. The cognitive dissonance afflicting ordinary people in the Soviet Bloc was what George Orwell parodied in 1984, using a fictional pseudo-British setting. Such blatant lies, such clumsy attempts at mind control from officialdom, were an affront to sanity and reason in the real world and simply did not wash. The Soviet and Chinese citizens, while superficially pretending to believe such hamfisted propaganda to appease the officials, completely distrusted the official narratives and sought to discover the truth by other means. They developed healthy scepticism and they forced change within their own societies.

    Circumstances have spun around 180 degrees over the past few decades for several reasons:

    https://www.greanvillepost.com/2022/09/21/propaganda-wars-who-is-actually-spreading-disinformation-2/

    #116593
    Dora
    Participant

    Should We Talk About The Sigma Nine Plus Unicorns?
    A historic inflection point is taking place – and we’re missing it.

    https://janwellmann.substack.com/p/should-we-talk-about-the-sigma-nine

    #116594
    Red
    Participant

    Hmm this sounds familiar, I think, or do I?
    NATO has added to the traditional domains of warfare – land, sea, air, space and cyberspace – a new one: “the cognitive domain.” This is not just about imposing certain ideas or behaviors, as in traditional propaganda and psy-ops, but about modifying cognition – influencing the process by which we ourselves arrive at ideas, insights, beliefs, choices and behaviors. The target is not primarily an enemy army, but the citizen. Winning the war is no longer determined by moving a border on a map, but by ideological conversion of the target.

    “Cognitive warfare is one of the most debated topics within Nato,” researcher François du Cluzel told a panel discussion on Oct. 5, 2021. He wrote a foundational paper “Cognitive Warfare” for the Nato-affiliated think tank Innovation Hub in 2020. Although cognitive warfare overlaps with information warfare, classical propaganda and psychological operations, du Cluzel points out that cognitive warfare goes much further. In information warfare, one “only” tries to control the supply of information. Psychological operations involve influencing perceptions, beliefs and behavior. The goal of cognitive warfare is “to turn everyone into a weapon,” and “the goal is not to attack what individuals think, but how they think.” Du Cluzel: “It is a war against our cognition – the way our brains process information and turn it into knowledge. It directly targets the brain”. Cognitive warfare is about “hacking the individual,” allowing the brain to be “programmed.”

    To achieve this, almost every domain of knowledge imaginable is applied: psychology, linguistics, neurobiology, logic, sociology, anthropology, behavioral sciences, “and more.” “Social engineering always begins with an understanding of the environment and the target; the goal is to understand the psychology of the target population,” du Cluzel writes. The basis remains traditional propaganda and disinformation techniques, enhanced by current technology and advances in knowledge. “Behavior, meanwhile, can be predicted and calculated to such an extent,” according to du Cluzel, “that AI-driven behavioral science ‘behavioral economics’ should be classified as a hard science rather than soft science.”

    Citizen’s Brain Is the Battlefield in 21st-century Warfare

    #116595
    zerosum
    Participant

    It’s too bad that those in power don’t read TAE and make different decisions

    (USA says/threatens)

    “You will own nothing, and be happy”says as the owner/controller/enabler/elitist/rich/operator/producer, of the source of the ENERGY that you need to live/exist

    Opposition/resistance is futile
    Submit
    Do as you are told
    Obey
    No compromise

    “to defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies and partners.”

    No way. Not me. I got mine. You cannot have it.
    I’m not giving it away.
    You cannot take it away.
    Suck it up

    Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated this position on Wednesday, declaring that the Kremlin would “without a doubt use all available means to protect Russia and our people,” should Russian territory be threatened. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also warned.
    ———
    The survival odds are against you. 5 billion to 1.

    “… nuclear war between the United States and Russia would cause two-thirds of the planet to starve to death within two years. 5 billion people would perish, primarily as a result of nuclear detonations causing huge infernos that inject soot into the atmosphere which blocks out the sun and devastates crops. One wonders how a generation that thinks words are “violence” and misgendering someone is stochastic terrorism will react to an intercontinental nuclear war. The mind truly boggles.”
    ———–
    • Serbian President Warns of “Great World Conflict” Within Two Months (SN)

    Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday, “retired idiots with generals’ stripes” should not attempt to intimidate Moscow”. He warned, adding that “the Western establishment and NATO citizens need to understand that Russia has chosen its own path” and there is “no way back.”
    ———–

    European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has, as could be expected, called for new sanctions against Russia in connection with the forthcoming referendums, (a democratic vote by the people living there, a legal referendum), in Donbass and two regions of Ukraine. These concern the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics – which have been de-facto self-governing since 2014 – and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.
    ———-
    • Brussels’ Sanctions Caused Crisis – Orban (RT)

    Orban predicted that dropping the sanctions would allow the EU to avoid a recession.

    ——-
    • Austria To Reject Russian Gas Ban – FM (RT)

    Austria, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy and sources around 80% of natural gas from Russia, has been opposing the EU’s plan to restrict imports from Moscow.
    ———
    In comparison, covering up the crimes of Hunter, is a small fry.

    UN and NATO are covering up the crimes of the Kiev government since the 2014 coup, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the UN Security Council on Thursday.
    ——–

    #116596
    John Day
    Participant

    The late-night comments yesterday are quite worthy of this blog and commentariat, beginning with this link from Boscohorowitz, which was just after I retired for the night.

    It points out the details of how Russia beat Napoleon in 1812, by letting his great army advance, while attacking its supply lines and harrying its raiders, as they sought food for men and horses. They did not let Russian troops be destroyed by the great army, fighting at the gates of Moscow, but letting Napoleon take it, then not paying him off, starving and starving the great army until it left, starving the horses until the soldiers ate them, starving them as they wore down and retreated, shelling them as they retreated, then finally the bitter cold hit, when they were already routed.
    https://www.rt.com/russia/562799-war-of-1812-victorious-retreat/

    Everything after that is good-quality discussion.

    #116597
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    The Rise of the Global South and the Foundation of a New Currency System

    The Rise of the Global South and the Foundation of a New Currency System

    #116604
    zerosum
    Participant

    Inside look at the voting
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/historic-context-of-the-referenda-in-ukraine.html#more

    Historic Context Of The Referenda In Ukraine
    The propaganda in the ‘west’ will declare that the vote is irregular and that the results, likely to be pro-Russian, will be fake.

    The division is consistent with ethnic and linguistic differences between those parts of Ukraine.

    The southeastern parts of today’s Ukraine have for centuries been part of the central Russian empire. They were only attached to the Soviet Republic of Ukraine under Lenin’s rule in 1922 and, in the case of Crimea, in 1954 under Nikita Khrushchev who himself had grown up in the Donbas region.

    A likely high turnout and majority vote for membership in the Russian Federation will only correct the historic misalignment created by those illogical transfers.

    #116606
    zerosum
    Participant

    Democracy, Voting to go to war against Russia, in the west, (Canada, USA), is not allowed.

    #116607
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Mostly, I’m just mad that despite precaution someone around me wasn’t doing their part.
    (From graphic yesterday.)
    That is why the covidiot memes will tear communities apart. People believe that if they follow rituals that they will be protected from harm; when harm comes anyhow they project blame onto others in their community rather than realize that their sacred rituals are useless. In the end, covidiots destroy themselves or convert away from being covidiots because the ideologies are not adequate to deal with reality.

    #116608
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I concur with Afewknow’s remarks on CO2.

    Different climates had different atmospheres.

    Here’s a cute graph:

    ” Carbon dioxide concentrations dropped from 4,000 parts per million during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 parts per million during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years.[2]”

    You’ll see that the Ice Ages, which began a mere 2.4 million years ago, coincide with a major drop over the aeons in C)S levels. Before the Ice Ages, the world tended to be a lot warmer overall.

    It’s not complicated — until one adds politics to the mix. Right-wing, left-wing, headless chicken-wings, none of it makes for good science, only for self-serving bullshit.

    Another cute graph:

    #116609
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “a major drop over the aeons in C)S levels” CO2

    #116610
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Missing 2nd cvute graph:

    rg

    #116611
    Alexander Carpenter
    Participant

    It’s very curious how people with at least adequate skepticism (and even, occasionally, incisive pattern-recognition and brilliant insights) in some content-domains have blind-spots in others. Is that from failing to apply those skills in areas where they have for some reason adopted poorly-examined and unevidenced beliefs? Or maybe for no reason, just emotional affiliation or outright self-myth identification or some neurotic projection confined to, or trapped in, that domain. Or maybe if it’s a science domain, it’s because they aren’t particularly good at science and applying the scientific method.

    I ask because of the anomalous attachment of the otherwise astute “Afewknowthetruth” to his(?) fortress/prison of belief in the Carbon Cult panic-porn narrative about our always-slowly-changing climate. That narrative has been definitively falsified, yet remains within the Standard Narrative with a purely political agenda. The actual science is settled; the noise is corrupt manipulation and fear-mongering propaganda.
    One comprehensive refutation of the Carbon Cult nonsense (scientifically speaking) can be found here:
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/0vrpxs5olpserhx/Do%20You%20%22Believe%22%20in%20Climate%20Change%3F.docx?dl=0

    But that’s parenthetical. My real motivation for this comment is to propose that a systematic practice of epistemological discipline would benefit us all, not just those unable to distinguish between belief and experience (or just knowledge). To that end, I submit a work-in-progress that examines this situation:
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/8vnz3ml5z730mds/Epistemological%20Engineering.docx?dl=0

    This is obviously a draft, and needs further refinement — contributions would be welcome from this commentariat.

    Thanks in advance. Philosophically speaking this challenge to our civilization is right up there with the need to develop a complexity-aware paradigm to replace the imploding reductionist linearizing “science” paradigm that has Peter Principled itself to the cusp of outright failure of our public dialogue and its premises.

    #116612
    Mr. House
    Participant

    A question for the readership: Do you think the FED and .gov could have bailed out all of their buddies like they did in 2020 without covid?

    #116613
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @zerosum wishfully lamented, ” It’s too bad that those in power don’t read TAE and make different decisions.”

    The evidence very strongly suggests that they do (read TAE, I mean, and other sites like it . . . . although few . . . . which I say with saint like humility . . . .are as good as we are, .) , and it also suggests that what they read in places like this scares the living shit out of them, and that fear of the truths we (and others like us) speak is what motivates those elite authoritarians to do the things they do in an effort to squelch such terrifying truths.

    In other words (and I quote) “It’s too bad that those in power don’t read TAE and make different decisions. ” Reminds me of the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.”

    But fear not! In this case getting what we wished for is a good thing (albeit it a bit scary) so please keep at it.

    #116615
    Mr. House
    Participant
    #116616

    This map makes very clear what the referendums this weekend are about. All of southeast Ukraine. They will be hotly contested. But as I wrote earlier, the numbers will be between 80% and 95%. And if you can’t win that, you will have to label the referendums themselves undemocratic. The EU had some of those, in France and Holland, about a new EU constitution, and made them disappear.

    Once Russia has these 4 regions, they will move west and include Odessa. Then Ukraine will be landlocked. It will get ugly.

    4

    #116617
    zerosum
    Participant

    Read em, and Weep.
    US empire is fighting many battles, many wars. (I won’t make the list because you all know those battles and those wars.)

    It’s time for our leaders, to acknowledge, to set priorities and to make peace and win the battle of survival.

    The war that is causing the biggest damage to the empire, and to civilization, are all the battles by “Mother Earth.”
    (Fall is here. Fortunately, I’m not on the east coast preparing for the coming storm. Only some of my tomatoes still need to be harvested.)

    #116618
    zerosum
    Participant

    Oil is below $ 80.00
    Gas is Above $2.00
    Stupid me ….. I thought that there was a relationship.

    #116619
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Europe’s reluctance and “foot-dragging-style” refusal to give visas and safe passage to young Russians fleeing the draft will prove to be the worst mistake they’ve made since attacking peaceful business partner Russia (by means of “Ukraine”) in the first place, and then destroying their own lives and economy by shutting off their own access to Russia’s gas and oil and lobbing artillery shells into Donbass grade schools.

    Soon the ghastly enormity of that incredibly homicidal evil will sink in. By refusing to let those young men leave Russia Europe forces those young men (de facto) to soon become soldiers whose new job will be to defend Russia by killing Europeans.

    “Oh, no,” Europe is saying. “You can’t come in to Europe to escape being drafted into an anti-Europe army. You must stay where you are until you are drafted and sent back here to kill our sons, wives and children.”

    How crazy is that?

    I think it is crazy enough to make a LOT of people start wondering the same thing. They might even start asking WHO the fuck would be crazy enough to insist that another country come in to conquer them, and WHY would they do it.

    #116620
    John Day
    Participant

    “Vote To Live” is posted, with a picture of Jenny in the garden at dawn (Some redundancy again)
    https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/voting-to-live

    ​R​eferenda​ now underway​ in Novorussian areas​ of Ukraine​, including Donetsk​, ​Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson​ will have secondary effects, assuming these areas vote to rejoin Russia.
    ​Shelling the Zaporozhye nuke will be shelling Russia at that point. Prisoners of war will not be executed for war crimes, because Russia does nt have the death penalty, as Donetsk and Lugansk currently do.​
    Ukraine getting longer range missiles to shell the expanded Russia will ensure deeper devastation within what remains of Ukraine. It does appear that Russia is preparing, by calling-up 300,000 ready-reserves, to launch a “by the book” land war against the remainder of Ukraine. It also appears that they would rather not do that, but would like to negotiate a reasonable resolution.
    Russia may build up forces, lace them at some depth, inside Russia, and prepare multiple contingency plans, rather than commit them immediately. Russia’s biggest concern remains an attack by NATO, so holding reserves, ready for rapid deployment, is a conservative option.
    Whatever is rumored to happen this weekend would presumably be a western sneak attack or false-flag attack. Russians may know a lot more about “it”.
    I have to wonder what the point will be that might allow Germany and other European countries to agree to some settlement which allows them to buy Russian gas and oil. Can some treaty be signed?

    Moon of Alabama: Historic Context Of The Referenda In Ukraine Thanks Zerosum.
    Voting for membership in the Russian Federation has started in four oblast of Ukraine:
    ..The Ukrainian regime has resorted to pure terrorism to prevent the votes from happening:
    ​ ​Ukrainian partisans, sometimes working with special operations forces, have blown up warehouses holding ballots and buildings where Russian proxy officials preparing for the vote held meetings. Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that they are engaged in a campaign to assassinate key Russian administration officials; more than a dozen have been blown up, shot and poisoned, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials.
    ​ ​Such behavior by the Zelenski regime against its still Ukrainian compatriots will only encourage the people in the four oblast to vote for an alignment with Russia.​
    ..In 2014, after the violent fascist coup in Kiev, one of the first laws implemented by the new government removed the Russian language from official use. Instead of overcoming the differences between its people it only sealed the predominant split in Ukraine.
    ​ ​The election promise of the current Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelenski to make peace with the Russia aligned rebellious Donbas region by adhering to the Minsk 2 agreements was rewarded with a large share of southeastern votes for his presidency. However, after having been threatened with death by fascists, Zelenski has made a 180 degree turn and has since posed as Ukrainian nationalist. In consequence he has lost all support in southeastern Ukraine.
    ​ ​The southeastern parts of today’s Ukraine have for centuries been part of the central Russian empire. They were only attached to the Soviet Republic of Ukraine under Lenin’s rule in 1922 and, in the case of Crimea, in 1954 under Nikita Khrushchev who himself had grown up in the Donbas region.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/historic-context-of-the-referenda-in-ukraine.html#more

    Gilbert Doctorow has a well considered assessment of the current Russian moves, but he says “referendums”, so I won’t quote those parts, just his closing.
    ​ ​In light of all these developments, I am compelled to revise my appreciation of what transpired at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting. Western media have focused full attention on only one issue: the supposed friction between Russia and its main global friends, India and China, over its war in Ukraine. That seemed to me to be grossly exaggerated. Now it appears to be utter nonsense. It is inconceivable that Putin did not discuss with Xi and Modi what he is about to do in Ukraine. If Russia indeed now supplies to its war effort a far greater part of its military potential, then it is entirely reasonable to expect the war to end with Russian victory by 31 December of this year as the Kremlin appears to have pledged to its loyal supporters.
    ​ ​Looking beyond Ukraine’s possible loss of statehood, a Russian victory will mean more than an Afghanistan-like bloody nose for Washington. It will expose the low value of the U.S. military umbrella for EU member states and will necessarily lead to re-evaluation of Europe’s security architecture, which is what the Russians were demanding before their incursion into Ukraine was launched in February.
    From ‘special military operation’ to open war

    There are mixed reactions across Russia to calling up the ready-reserves of 300,000 military veterans. There are a lot of men getting flights out of the country. There is some excitement in Moscow. There are protests against the call-up (not a “draft”). There are wives sobbing goodbye. There is some heavy drinking.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/mobilization-begins-scenes-around-russia-what-are-we-going

    ​Alexander Korybko looks at the referenda (he uses the correct word)​ in Novorussian areas as being a form of defensive move.
    ​ ​The larger context within which those announcements were made is Russia’s unexpected setback in Kharkov Region, which was followed by Kiev building upon that momentum to seize control of a village in Lugansk and thus symbolically reverse that Republic’s full liberation that was achieved over the summer. Turkish President Erdogan also just told CBS that President Putin allegedly informed him during their meeting on the sidelines of last week’s SCO Summit in Samarkand “that he’s willing to end this as soon as possible. The way things are going right now are quite problematic. I think a significant step will be taken forward.”
    ​ ​It’s therefore possible that the scenario of those two Donbass Republics’ democratically driven accession to the Russian Federation, which could even perhaps coincide with the Kherson and/or Zaporozhye Regions’, could be the asymmetrical response that observers are bracing themselves to expect from President Putin after his side’s unexpected setback in Kharkov Region. To explain, Moscow would then regard attacks against them as attacks against itself exactly as Simonyan predicted, which would thus establish very clear red lines that might promptly end the military phase of the Ukrainian Conflict. NATO-backed Kiev would either voluntarily cease hostilities or be forced by Moscow into finally doing so.

    Could Forthcoming Donbass Referenda be Russia’s “Defense-Oriented” Response to Kharkov?

    #116621
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ ​Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed Moscow’s intention to continue close cooperation with the IAEA in order to force Kiev to immediately cease shelling the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant during a meeting with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry published on Wednesday reads.
    ​ ​”During the conversation, an exchange of opinions on the security issues of nuclear facilities in Ukraine was held, including the situation around the Zaporozhye NPP (ZNPP). Lavrov confirmed the intention of the Russian side to continue close cooperation with the IAEA in order to force the Kiev regime to immediately cease the bombings of the aforementioned power plant and its adjacent territories, including the city of Energodar where the staff of the ZNPP and their families reside,” the ministry noted.
    https://tass.com/politics/1511361

    ​Has the US killed 27 million people since the end of WW-II? ​
    US is ‘Prime Criminal & Violator’ of UN Charter, Analyst Says on Biden’s ‘Astonishing Lies’ at UNGA
    https://sputniknews.com/20220921/us-is-prime-criminal–violator-of-un-charter-analyst-says-on-bidens-astonishing-lies-at-unga-1101059548.html

    ​ ​During remarks on Wednesday, the civilian head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) slammed China as a “challenge” to the alliance. In an interview with Reuters, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Beijing’s support for the war in Ukraine, its opposition to NATO expansion, and its territorial claims justify the alliance assigning China this label.
    ​ ​Largely in response to Washington’s increasing hostility, Moscow and Beijing have strengthened their ties for well over a decade. Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, China and Russia carried out several rounds of military exercises. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have met several times since the war began, reaffirming the two Asian powers’ growing ties…
    ​ ​“The sum of all is this just increases the importance of NATO allies standing together and realizing that China is part of the security challenges we need to face today and in the future,” Stoltenberg said in the interview with Reuters.
    https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/nato-chinas-role-in-ukraine-war-shows-why-it-is-a-challenge-to-the-alliance/

    #116622
    John Day
    Participant

    All here already, but worthy of careful consideration:

    ​Dora sent this about the 9 sigma event, a one in trillions chance of all these excess deaths and cancers being a random occurrence.​
    Should We Talk About The Sigma Nine Plus Unicorns​?​ A historic inflection point is taking place
    https://janwellmann.substack.com/p/should-we-talk-about-the-sigma-nine

    ​Why we don’t talk about those things… Mind-control: (Thanks AFKTT)
    ​..T​he Pentagon was compelled to order a sweeping review of clandestine U.S. psychological warfare operations (psy ops) conducted through social media platforms. The investigation comes in response to reports suggesting that the U.S. military has been creating bogus personas with AI-generated profile pictures and fictitious media sites on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to manipulate social media users.
    ​ ​Psychological warfare, as the U.S. Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group explained in a recruiting video released earlier this year, enables the government to pull the strings, turn everything they touch into a weapon, be everywhere, deceive, persuade, change, influence, and inspire.
    ​ ​Of the many weapons in the government’s vast arsenal, psychological warfare (or psy ops) can take many forms: mind control experiments, behavioral nudging, propaganda.
    ​ ​In the 1950s, MK-ULTRA, the mind control program developed under CIA director Allen Dulles as part of his brain warfare Cold War campaigns, subjected hundreds of unsuspecting American civilians and military personnel to doses of LSD, some having the hallucinogenic drug slipped into their drinks at the beach, in city bars, at restaurants. For Operation Midnight Climax, the CIA hired prostitutes to lure men into a bugged room, where they would be dosed with LSD and observed having sex
    ​ ​As Brianna Nofil explains, “MK-Ultra’s ‘mind control’ experiments generally centered around behavior modification via electro-shock therapy, hypnosis, polygraphs, radiation, and a variety of drugs, toxins, and chemicals.”
    ​ ​The CIA spent nearly $20 million on its MKULTRA program, reportedly as a means of programming people to carry out assassinations and, to a lesser degree, inducing anxieties and erasing memories, before it was supposedly shut down.
    https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/masters_of_deceit_the_governments_propaganda_of_fear_mind_control_brain_warfare

    ​Thanks Red. ​“Cognitive warfare is one of the most debated topics within Nato,” researcher François du Cluzel told a panel discussion on Oct. 5, 2021. He wrote a foundational paper “Cognitive Warfare” for the Nato-affiliated think tank Innovation Hub in 2020. Although cognitive warfare overlaps with information warfare, classical propaganda and psychological operations, du Cluzel points out that cognitive warfare goes much further. In information warfare, one “only” tries to control the supply of information. Psychological operations involve influencing perceptions, beliefs and behavior. The goal of cognitive warfare is “to turn everyone into a weapon,” and “the goal is not to attack what individuals think, but how they think.” Du Cluzel: “It is a war against our cognition – the way our brains process information and turn it into knowledge. It directly targets the brain”. Cognitive warfare is about “hacking the individual,” allowing the brain to be “programmed.”​ …
    ..“Behavior, meanwhile, can be predicted and calculated to such an extent,” according to du Cluzel, “that AI-driven behavioral science ‘behavioral economics’ should be classified as a hard science rather than soft science.”​ …
    ​..Cognitive warfare “exploits the weaknesses of the human brain,” recognizing the importance of the role of emotions in driving cognition. Cyberpsychology, which seeks to understand the interaction between humans, machines and AI (artificial intelligence) will be increasingly important here.​..
    ​..We are now in the midst of a revolution – in the classic sense – a radical upheaval of the organization of the state system and power relations. Kees van der Pijl clearly explains in his book “States of Emergency” how this revolution, unlike, for example, the French and American revolutions, has not been initiated from below, but from above, by the oligarchy. They implement policy through co-opted governments and organizations such as the U.S. government, the EU, WHO and WEF, supported by Big Tech companies. The system being worked toward is totalitarian, technocratic and centralized. Relatively few people realize how radical the upheaval we are living through, probably because this war has not been initiated by direct physical force, but by cognitive war, directed at civilians.
    ​https://www.globalresearch.ca/citizen-brain-battlefield-21st-century-warfare/5794156

    #116623
    Armenio Pereira
    Participant

    Most of us do not know Reality, only countless versions of it (including the perennial personal favorite: each one’s POV.)

    What we call “Truth” is but a more or less tacit agreement on a single version of Reality (usually the one pushed by the stronger party, with a certain – small – degree of tolerance) established between a sizable – or more influential – portion of human beings.

    Only the enlightened – and/or deranged – can live fully immersed in the Now; the rest of us will have to toil with wishful thinking.

    #116624
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    Here’s a hypothesis which I support: neither CO2 nor CH4 is THE greenhouse gas of concern. That gas is water vapour. For supporting evidence search for “Walter Jehne” and “soil carbon sponge.” Some good videos are on Youtube.

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