Sep 262022
 
 September 26, 2022  Posted by at 8:21 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Henri Matisse Cap d’Antibes 1922

 

Meloni’s Right-Wing Alliance Wins Clear Majority In Italian Elections (ZH)
Thousands Of Firms In Italy On Brink Of Closure (RT)
The Return of Fascism (Chris Hedges)
Russia Says US “Wrecked” Ukraine Talks, But Peace Is Still Possible (Maté)
Early Turnout Numbers For Referendums On Joining Russia (RT)
Russia Says It’s Not Threatening Anyone With Nukes (Antiwar)
We Might Be Spared Nuclear War But Threat of Home Grown Tyranny Remains (PCR)
Pound Slumps To All-time Low Against Dollar (BBC)
UK To Double Military Spending Amid Cost-of-living Crisis (RT)
The Tories Declare Class War (Craig Murray)
US Facing Natural Gas Shortage – Reuters (RT)
New Zealand Prime Minister Calls for a Global Censorship System (Turley)
Psaki : If Midterms Are A ‘Referendum’ On Biden, Democrats Are Doomed (NYP)
Roger Waters Cancels Poland Concerts After Ukraine War Remarks (RFE)

 

 

Giorgia Meloni has won the Italian elections and is the next PM. The MSM has been loaded full of terms like Mussolini, ultra right wing and fascist. While she speaks of God, country and family. I don’t know exactly who is behind her, and I don’t need to. I have only to look at the mess Mario Draghi has made of Italy.

And more importantly, I look at the lockdowns and vaccine mandates, the unlimited support for the Ukraine nazis, and the cold and hungry winter many people in Europe, not least Italy, will face because of it.

Want to talk fascism? First learn to identify it.

 

 

 

 

Second largest food distribution centre in the world
https://twitter.com/i/status/1574124957377777664

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Meloni’s alliance which includes Salvini’s League and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia will win around 43% of the vote..”

Meloni’s Right-Wing Alliance Wins Clear Majority In Italian Elections (ZH)

Europe’s unelected authoritarian ruler, Ursula von der Leyen, is not going to be happy: according to early exit polls out of Italy’s national election, the right-wing bloc of Giorgia Meloni – which the ultra-left wing press just can’t stop comparing to Mussolini – is set for a historic, if largely expected, victory and a clear majority (if, however, not a super-majority) which will propel Meloni to the top of the Italian government as the country’s next prime minister, ushering in a historic right-wing shift for a country that – like Sweden until two weeks ago – has traditionally been very left-wing. Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which won just 4% of the vote during the last national election in 2018, won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday’s parliamentary elections with around 22.5%-26.5% of the vote according to an exit poll released by Italian national broadcaster Rai.

She is now set to become prime minister but would require approval from junior partners in her coalition to assume the role. According to an exit poll from Rai, Meloni’s alliance which includes Salvini’s League and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia will win around 43% of the vote. The Center-Left alliance will have just 25.5%-29.5% of the vote, while the 5 Star movement has 13.5%-17.5% of the final vote. Italy’s electoral system, which strongly favors parties that run as part of a coalition, is expected to help the right to an ample majority in both houses of Parliament: with 228 votes in the Lower House and 115 seats in the Senate (according to SkyTG24), Meloni will have a majority as just 104 votes are required. As the WSJ notes, the Italian election is “the first big test of the European Union’s political cohesion as it confronts Russia’s attempt to redraw the continent’s post-Cold War order.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s restriction of natural-gas deliveries has sparked an energy-price crunch that, combined with other inflationary pressures, is expected to push much of Europe into a recession this winter.” Meloni replaces former Goldman Sachs partner and ECB technocrat and globalist, Mario Draghi, and will be the country’s first female prime minister. The likely right-wing government will face difficult decisions over how to protect Italian households and businesses from sky-high prices for natural gas and electricity. While Italy’s parlous public finances allow limited scope for fiscal largess, if the UK is any example – and it is – Italy will engage in a similar strategy of targeted and debt-funded fiscal stimulus which will lead to a blowout in Italian debt, a further plunge in the euro and much chaos everywhere.

[..] During the election campaign, Meloni tried to reassure voters and investors that she will keep Italy’s mammoth debt under control and won’t question the country’s foreign alliances or support for Ukraine. Expect all of that to change tomorrow.

Meloni

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Where Meloni comes from.

Thousands Of Firms In Italy On Brink Of Closure (RT)

Over 100,000 businesses in Italy are in danger of closing down due to soaring energy bills, the news outlet Corriere della Sera reported on Saturday, citing Carlo Sangalli, head of the Italian business association Confcommercio. “Already today many companies are reorganizing or reducing services… Between now and the first half of 2023, at least 120,000 small businesses in the service sector are at risk… This is a cautious estimate that does not take into account the largest companies,” Sangalli told the news outlet. According to the official, the situation could lead to the loss of more than 370,000 jobs. Sangalli noted that energy prices in Italy are much higher than in other countries, which puts a strain on small and medium-sized businesses.


“In terms of energy costs, our hotels, bars, restaurants and stores will pay 40-60% more on their bills this year than in Germany, and three times that than in France,” Sangalli said. He noted that the energy crisis may deal the final blow to many businesses that have already been made vulnerable by the Covid-19 pandemic. The official said the country needed “good reforms and good investments” that will “make our country work better and in a simpler way,” and called for some of the support measures introduced during the pandemic to be reinstated. Italy, along with other EU countries, has been battling a record-high inflation. Annual inflation in the country reached 8.4% in August, driven largely by energy costs. Italy relies on imports for nearly 75% of its energy. At the start of this year, it was importing 40% of its gas from Russia, but in July its Russian purchases dropped to 25% due to sanctions.

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Chris is getting too old. He’s glued to the rear view mirror.

The Return of Fascism (Chris Hedges)

Meloni got her start in politics as a 15-year-old activist for the youth wing of the Italian Social Movement, founded after the World War II by supporters of Benito Mussolini. She calls EU bureaucrats agents of “nihilistic global elites driven by international finance.” She peddles the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that non-white immigrants are being permitted to enter Western nations as part of a plot to undermine or “replace” the political power and culture of white people. She has called on the Italian navy to turn back boats with immigrants, which the far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini did in 2018. Her Fratelli d’Italia, Brothers of Italy, party is a close ally of Hungary’s President, Viktor Orban. A European Parliament resolution recently declared that Hungary can no longer be defined as a democracy.

Meloni and Orban are not alone. Sweden Democrats, which took over 20 percent of the vote in Sweden’s general election last week to become the country’s second largest political party, was formed in 1988 from a neo-Nazi group called B.S.S., or Keep Sweden Swedish. It has deep fascist roots. Of the party’s 30 founders, 18 had Nazi affiliations, including several who served in the Waffen SS, according to Tony Gustaffson a historian and former Sweden Democrat member. France’s Marine Le Pen took over 41 percent of the vote in April against Emmanuel Macron. In Spain, the hard-right Vox party is the third largest party in Spain’s Parliament. The far-right German AfD or Alternative for Germany party took over 12 percent in federal elections in 2017, making it the third largest party, though it lost a couple percentage points in the 2021 elections. The U.S. has its own version of fascism embodied in a Republican party that coalesces in cult-like fashion around Donald Trump, embraces the magical thinking, misogyny, homophobia and white supremacy of the Christian Right and actively subverts the election process.

Economic collapse was indispensable to the Nazis’ rise to power. In the 1928 elections in Germany, the Nazi party received less than 3 percent of the vote. Then came the global financial crash of 1929. By early 1932, 40 percent of the German insured workforce, six million people, were unemployed. That same year, the Nazis became the largest political party in the German parliament. The Weimar government, tone deaf and hostage to the big industrialists, prioritized paying bank loans and austerity rather than feeding and employing a desperate population. It foolishly imposed severe restrictions on who was eligible for unemployment insurance. Millions of Germans went hungry. Desperation and rage rippled through the population. Mass rallies, led by a collection of buffoonish Nazis in brown uniforms who would have felt at home at Mar-a-Lago, denounced Jews, Communists, intellectuals, artists and the ruling class, as internal enemies. Hate was their main currency. It sold well.

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“..talks between Ukraine and Russia collapsed after then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kiev in April and informed Zelensky that Putin “should be pressured, not negotiated with.”

Russia Says US “Wrecked” Ukraine Talks, But Peace Is Still Possible (Maté)

In his Sept. 21 speech announcing an escalation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused NATO states of sabotaging a peace deal that could have ended it months ago. At talks brokered by Turkey in March, Putin said, “Kiev representatives voiced quite a positive response to our proposals… But a peaceful settlement obviously did not suit the West, which is why, after certain compromises were coordinated, Kiev was actually ordered to wreck all these agreements.” Speaking at the United Nations hours later, President Joe Biden criticized the Russian leader but did not address his claim that the US thwarted negotiations. Asked about Putin’s remarks, officials from the White House’s National Security Council (NSC) and the State Department offered differing responses.

An NSC official referred me to the Ukrainian government for comment about “their peace negotiations in the spring.” But overall, the official added, “it is inaccurate that the U.S. discouraged Ukraine from seeking a peace agreement. Throughout this conflict, we have said that it is up to Ukraine to make their own sovereign decisions.” A State Department spokesperson did not address Putin’s rendering of the March-April negotiations, and instead focused on the period before the invasion. “As part of our efforts to deter President Putin from launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine’s sovereign territory on February 24, 2022, the United States consistently spoke of the two paths Russia could choose: dialogue and diplomacy, or escalation and massive consequences,” the State Department wrote. “We made genuine and sincere efforts to pursue the former, which we vastly preferred, but Putin chose war.”

Asked if it had any response to Putin’s account of the peace talks that occurred after the invasion, the State spokesperson did not respond. The Russian government has not offered any additional detail or evidence for Putin’s claim that Ukraine and Russia were close to a “settlement,” and that Kiev’s NATO backers intervened to “wreck” it. But the Kremlin is also not the first to assert it. The claim originated with sources to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who described the episode to Ukrainian media outlet Ukrayinska Pravda. According to their account, talks between Ukraine and Russia collapsed after then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kiev in April and informed Zelensky that Putin “should be pressured, not negotiated with.”

Johnson also relayed that “even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on [security] guarantees with Putin,” Western nations “are not.” That report was followed this month by an overlooked disclosure from former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill. Citing “multiple former senior U.S. officials,” Hill wrote that “Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement” in April. Russia would withdraw to its pre-invasion position, while Ukraine would pledge not to join NATO “and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.”

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I see videos of people ostensibly being forced to vote Russia. Not exactly subtle. But who needs subtlety in an echo chamber?

Early Turnout Numbers For Referendums On Joining Russia (RT)

The referendums on joining Russia are continuing in the Donbass republics and Russian-controlled regions of southern Ukraine. On Sunday, the turnout already reached the required 50% threshold in the Donetsk and Lugansk republics and Zaporozhye Region, with only Kherson lagging behind. In the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), more than 76% of eligible voters have already cast their votes, according to official figures. The referendum in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is proceeding at a similar pace, with some 77% of voters having shown up at the polling stations. Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, which were largely seized by Russian forces amid the ongoing conflict, have demonstrated a lower turnout.


Still, the latter region has already met the required legal threshold, with some 51.55% of registered voters already casting their ballots, according to the head of the Zaporozhye electoral committee, Galina Katyshenko. Kherson has so far demonstrated lower turnout, with nearly 49% of voters showing up for the referendum. Polls across the two regions and in the Donbass republics are set to stay open for the next two days. Ukraine and its Western backers have rejected the referendums on joining Russia as illegal and have vowed to not recognize them regardless of their outcome. Speaking to US broadcaster CBS on Sunday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky warned that should Russia complete the referendums, it would “make it impossible, in any case, to continue any diplomatic negotiations” with Moscow.

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It isn’t.

Russia Says It’s Not Threatening Anyone With Nukes (Antiwar)

On Friday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia wasn’t threatening anyone with nuclear weapons and said Moscow doesn’t want a direct conflict with the US and NATO. “We are not threatening anyone with nuclear weapons,” Ryabkov said. “The criteria for their use are outlined in Russia’s military doctrine.” Russia’s doctrine is that it could use nuclear weapons if it is facing an “existential threat,” and Russian officials have made clear throughout the current war in Ukraine that this is still the policy. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Moscow could use nuclear weapons to defend its “territorial integrity.” While his comments were a more explicit warning, it still falls in line with the doctrine. But Russian territory is set to expand into Ukraine after referendums that are being held in the Donbas, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.


Ukraine is planning to launch more counter-offensives against these territories using weapons and intelligence provided by the US and other NATO countries. Ryabkov said that it’s not in Russia’s interest to be in a direct conflict with the US and NATO. “A face-off with the United States and NATO, which is fraught with an open armed conflict, is not in our interests,” he said. “We hope that the Biden administration understands the risks of uncontrolled escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, given the repeated statements by their officials that they don’t plan to send American servicemen to Ukraine,” Ryabkov added. President Biden has repeatedly stated that he won’t send US troops into Ukraine to fight Russia, although there is a CIA presence on the ground, according to a report from The New York Times that was published in June. The report also said special operations forces from Britain, France, Canada, and Lithuania are on the ground in Ukraine.

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“..the referendums that begin today in the liberated areas of Ukraine, which without question will succeed, promise to reduce the threat of Armageddon..”

We Might Be Spared Nuclear War But Threat of Home Grown Tyranny Remains (PCR)

As readers know, I am convinced that Putin’s toleration of insults and provocations has had the effect of encouraging more and worse provocations and not, as he intended, to downplay conflict. As you also know, I am convinced that his “limited military operation” in Donbass designed to protect the Donbass Russians, formerly a part of Russia, from horrible abuse by Ukrainian forces and the neo-Nazi militias, was a mistake. It is a mistake because the West characterized a limited operation as an “invasion of Ukraine,” and used its slow progress as evidence of Russian failure. It is a mistake because the go-slow nature of the Russian offensive in order to minimize the impact on civilian lives and infrastructure gave the West plenty of time to convince itself to get more and more involved with diplomatic support, money, armaments and ammunition, training, and now with satellite information for targeting the Russian forces.

As I see it, Putin has been behaving as British Prime Minister Chamberlain is alleged to have behaved, thus encouraging more aggressive actions. Wanting peace at all costs brings war. As it is no longer possible for the Kremlin to speak of “our Western partners” or to deny that the West is at war with Russia, the Kremlin, trying to avoid a war that it knows would be nuclear, has reached my conclusion of eight years ago that if the areas in today’s artificial borders of Ukraine that require Russian protection were reincorporated into Russia, the conflict would have to cease or become direct Western military aggression against Russia. As Biden says he has no stomach for a war with Russia and will not permit one, and as NATO is incapable of such war, the referendums that begin today in the liberated areas of Ukraine, which without question will succeed, promise to reduce the threat of Armageddon.

Although in my opinion the leadership everywhere in the Western world is Satanic and insane, I do not think the Western governing elites are ready to commit suicide by attacking Russian territory. The West can say it doesn’t recognize the rights of people to self-determination, but if Russia says it is Russian territory, it is. So that you understand, the referendums are Putin’s way of ending the conflict before it widens into nuclear war. Putin’s rescue of the world from nuclear war will not be acknowledged by the Western presstitutes, Washington’s puppet EU and UK governments, or by the puppet who serves as NATO secretary general. But what they think does not matter. Putin, belatedly, is doing his best to save us all from nuclear war. Pray that he succeeds.

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“..historic tax cuts funded by huge increases in borrowing..”

Pound Slumps To All-time Low Against Dollar (BBC)

The pound has fallen to its lowest level against the US dollar since decimalisation in 1971. In early Asia trade, sterling fell by more than 4% to $1.0327 before regaining some ground to around $1.05. That came after UK Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled historic tax cuts funded by huge increases in borrowing. The pound has also been under pressure as the dollar has been boosted by the US central bank continuing to raise interest rates. The euro also touched a fresh 20-year-low against the dollar in morning Asia trade amid investor concerns about the risk of recession as winter approaches with no sign of an end to the energy crisis or the war in Ukraine.


Peter Escho, the co-founder of investment firm Wealthi, said: “All currencies are getting sold off against the US dollar, so there is a large element of US dollar strength. But with the pound, it has really been exacerbated by news that the new government will be cutting taxes, which is inflationary. “Add to that recent energy subsidies and news that the Bank of England might need to have an emergency rate-hike meeting, this all results in a sense of panic,” he added. Some investors think the Bank of England will be forced to take emergency action to halt the pound’s slide. “To stop the bleeding even temporarily, the BOE may well enter ‘whatever it takes’ territory to bring inflation down. An emergency meeting rate hike could happen as soon as this week to regain credibility in the market. We could even see a hike today,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management told the BBC.

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Add Chucky the Third and you have a crazy winter.

UK To Double Military Spending Amid Cost-of-living Crisis (RT)

Britain will boost its military spending considerably in the coming years, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has revealed, despite the fact the nation is facing an economic crisis stemming from Covid-19 measures and London’s sanctions on Moscow. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph published on Sunday, Wallace said the British government will shell out at least £52 billion ($56.5 billion) to shore up the military, which is “actually going to grow.” The plans are in keeping with Prime Minister Liz Truss’ campaign promise to boost defense spending. According to the official, Britain’s annual defense budget will amount to £100 billion by 2030. Wallace also took aim at former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and the Treasury for what he described as a “corporate raid” of the armed forces which started back in the 1990s.

He claimed that the Treasury had even tried to “stipulate the size of the Army.” “My department has been so used to 30 or 40 years of defending against cuts or reconciling cuts with modern fighting, they’re going to have to get used to a completely different culture,” the defence secretary noted. Wallace expressed confidence, however, that Sunak’s successor in the office, Kwasi Kwarteng, would show more understanding toward the military’s needs. The defence secretary, who retained his post after Liz Truss defeated Sunak in the race to become prime minister in early September, told journalists that the new leader’s willingness to spend more on the military was one of the key factors for him in deciding which candidate to back for prime minister. “The reason I supported Liz Truss was that the risks we were prepared to tolerate in the middle of the decade are not risks I want to tolerate any more in light of Russian aggression,” Wallace said.

Addressing world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York, Truss reiterated her campaign pledge to spend 3% of GDP on defense by 2030. According to Bloomberg, the new prime minister reversed former PM Boris Johnson’s plans to slash the military by 9,500 personnel. Commenting on the changes, which are expected to be unveiled by the end of 2022, Downing Street clarified that they were needed to “stand firm against coercion from authoritarian powers like Russia and China.” The decision comes despite the UK government’s interest payable on debt hitting the highest level on record, as reported by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) earlier this week. Inflation, food, and energy prices have also soared, while the British pound and consumer confidence have hit the lowest levelsin decades.

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“The idea of the cap on bankers’ bonuses was to remove the perverse incentive whereby a banker got a bonus of ten years salary by creating “assets” of bad loans..”

The Tories Declare Class War (Craig Murray)

The “cap” on bankers bonuses that the Tories have just removed had been set at double their annual salary. Yes, double ptheir annual salary. So a banker on £320,000 a year could only get an annual bonus of £640,000. That has now been lifted so they will be able to get annual bonuses of millions again. On each million of which they will also benefit from a new £55,000 tax cut. The greatest irony of this is that the first multimillion pound bankers’ bonuses will be going this Christmas to bankers who shorted the pound before Kwasi Kwarteng’s “mini-budget”. The cap on bankers’ bonuses was largely a sop to the public who had bailed out the bankers with public money borrowed – with trillions in interest – from the very bankers we were bailing out.

In effect Gordon Brown created sterling and gave it free to the bankers who caused the collapse, so they could lend it to the public purse and we could pay it back over two decades of public austerity. The idea of the cap on bankers’ bonuses was to remove the perverse incentive whereby a banker got a bonus of ten years salary by creating “assets” of bad loans, with no care whether those loans collapsed or not two years later, as he already had his ten years’ bonus. The Tories have just brought back that perverse incentive. Krug all round in the City!! It’s a bonanza for lap dance club owners and cocaine dealers. It’s a disaster for us. This perverse incentive will be needed to keep any money flowing into UK mortgages.

With the Bank rate sure to exceed 5% in the next few months and inflation continuing, mortgage rates will be in double digits by this time next year, and we are only a couple of years away from mass default and repossession. The wealthy will of course be able to use some of their tax cut money to take advantage of the stamp duty cut and snap up the repossessed properties as buy to let. That is what the Tories call growing the economy. Over 50% of the money from the tax cuts will benefit the top 5% of earners. If wealth inequality were the primary driver of economic growth – and that is the basis of Kwarteng’s economic theory – then how do you explain that the UK already has the second highest wealth inequality in the G7, behind only the USA, yet the lowest economic growth?

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“.. they are up by a whopping 300% from a few years ago..”

US Facing Natural Gas Shortage – Reuters (RT)

Shale producers in the United States are struggling to meet growing domestic and international natural gas demand, according to an analysis by Reuters. The report concluded that a hotter-than-expected summer and a lack of alternative energy sources have left the nation’s inventories below the seasonal average. It added that there were no signs of improvement in the level of inventories, despite the rise in gas prices. The latest data showed that the Permian Shale Basin, which contributes some 12% of US total gas output, and the rig count in the Permian, has been down for two weeks in a row. “Less drilling means less associated gas to add to the national total,” the news outlet reported.


While American energy companies have been exporting liquified natural gas (LNG) to Europe at record rates, calls have emerged lately to reduce those supplies to make sure there is enough for the US market. “With heating season around the corner in both Europe and the United States and with a lot of people in both places using gas for heating, the price outlook for gas does not look good from a consumer’s perspective,” Reuters wrote. The report noted that it is unlikely US gas prices will climb anywhere near European levels, “but they are up by a whopping 300% from a few years ago when gas was cheap because it was abundant.”

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WEF needs to go.

New Zealand Prime Minister Calls for a Global Censorship System (Turley)

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is the latest liberal leader to call for an international alliance to censor speech. Unsatisfied with the unprecedented corporate censorship of social media companies, leaders like Hillary Clinton have turned from private censorship to good old-fashioned state censorship. Speech regulation has become an article of faith on the left. Ardern used her speech this week to the United Nations General Assembly to call for censorship on a global scale. Ardern lashed out at “disinformation” and called for a global coalition to control speech. After nodding toward free speech, she proceeded to lay out a plan for its demise through government regulation:

But what if that lie, told repeatedly, and across many platforms, prompts, inspires, or motivates others to take up arms. To threaten the security of others. To turn a blind eye to atrocities, or worse, to become complicit in them. What then? This is no longer a hypothetical. The weapons of war have changed, they are upon us and require the same level of action and activity that we put into the weapons of old. We recognized the threats that the old weapons created. We came together as communities to minimize these threats. We created international rules, norms and expectations. We never saw that as a threat to our individual liberties – rather, it was a preservation of them. The same must apply now as we take on these new challenges.

Ardern noted how extremists use speech to spread lies without noting that non-extremists use the same free speech to counter such views. To answer her question on “how do you tackle climate change if people do not believe it exists” is that you convince people using the same free speech. Instead, Ardern appears to want to silence those who have doubts. While referring to a global censorship coalition as a “light-touch approach to disinformation,” Ardern revealed how sweeping such a system would likely be. She defended the need for such global censorship on having to combat those who question climate change and the need to stop “hateful and dangerous rhetoric and ideology.”

“After all, how do you successfully end a war if people are led to believe the reason for its existence is not only legal but noble? How do you tackle climate change if people do not believe it exists? How do you ensure the human rights of others are upheld, when they are subjected to hateful and dangerous rhetoric and ideology?” That is the same rationale used by authoritarian countries like China, Iran, and Russia to censor dissidents, minority groups, and political rivals. What is “hateful” and “dangerous” is a fluid concept that government have historically used to silence critics or dissenters. Ardern is the smiling face of the new generation of censors. At least the old generation of censors like the Iranians do not pretend to support free speech and openly admit that they are crushing dissent. The point is that we need to be equally on guard when censorship is pushed from the left with the best of motivations and the worst of means.

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Oh, right, MSNBC.

Psaki : If Midterms Are A ‘Referendum’ On Biden, Democrats Are Doomed (NYP)

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki bluntly admitted that if the November midterm elections are a “referendum” on President Biden, the Democrats will lose. Psaki, who left the White House in May to take a job at MSNBC, said if the midterms focus on the “most extreme” party, mentioning Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene by name, then Democrats will be celebrating on election day. “If it is a referendum on the president, they will lose. And they know that. They also know that crime is a huge vulnerability for Democrats, I would say one of the biggest vulnerabilities,” Psaki said Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”


She said she has been watching the US Senate race play out in Pennsylvania between Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate, and GOP celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, and noted that Republicans are running ads painting Fetterman as soft on crime. What’s been interesting to me is it’s always you follow the money, and where are people spending money. And in Pennsylvania, the Republicans have been spending millions of dollars on the air on crime ads against Fetterman because that’s where they see his vulnerability , Biden’s one-time chief spokeswoman said. So yes, the economy is hanging over everything. But you do have to look at state-by-state factors, and crime is a huge issue in the Pennsylvania race, she said. While Biden’s approval ratings have recently climbed into the mid-40s from the dregs in recent polls, a Washington Post/ABC News survey released Sunday found it remains below that at 39%. The president’s disapproval rating is at 53%, the poll found.

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Peace is not welcome in Krakow.

Roger Waters Cancels Poland Concerts After Ukraine War Remarks (RFE)

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has canceled concerts planned in Poland amid anger over his stance on Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine, Polish media reported. An official with the Tauron Arena in Krakow, where Waters was scheduled to perform two concerts in April, said they would no longer take place. “Roger Waters’ manager decided to withdraw…without giving any reason,” Lukasz Pytko from Tauron Arena Krakow said on September 24 in comments carried by Polish media outlets. The website for Waters’ This Is Not a Drill concert tour did not list the Krakow concerts previously scheduled for April 21 and 22.


City councilors in Krakow were expected to vote next week on a proposal to name Waters as a persona non grata, expressing “indignation” over the musician’s stance on the war in Ukraine. Allowing “Roger Waters, an open supporter of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, to play in Krakow…would be shameful for our city,” city councilor Lukasz Wantuch said last week on social media. “Let him sing in Moscow.” Waters wrote an open letter to Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska earlier this month in which he blamed “extreme nationalists” in Ukraine for having “set your country on the path to this disastrous war.” Waters has also criticized NATO, accusing it of provoking Russia.

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Malhotra

 

 


This is not stained glass. It’s a dragonfly’s wing seen up close. Dragonfly wings kill bacteria on contact by ripping apart their cell membranes with sharp nanopillars.

 

 

Bolt

 

 


Hydrosaurus, aka the Sailfin Dragon, is found in the rainforests of the Philippines

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle September 26 2022

Viewing 39 posts - 41 through 79 (of 79 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #116922
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I think that the entry point for debate about censorship of free speech should not revolve around whether censorship is good or not. It should first be a discussion addressing the question of whether it is censorship or not.

    #116923
    John Day
    Participant

    The rate of change of environmental conditions matters to existing life-forms.
    Sudden changes in environmental conditions tend to kill a lot of the life-forms which were well-adapted to the previously-prevailing conditions. The Little Ice Age killed a lot of farmers in the northern hemisphere.

    It is reasonable to have concern for rapid changes in our environmental conditions, and to pro-actively seek and consider ways to mitigate the effects of those changes on ourselves and other life-forms, which support us directly or indirectly.

    Chemical pollution, loss of pure water, climate changes that kill some people, some crops and some animals, loss of fossil fuels, fossil water, mineral ores, forests, etc.
    It all matters and “we” can invest now to mitigate future harms to ourselves and our posterity, at various scales, but only at higher scales if we agree and cooperate, which is rare.

    Some of us are doing personal projects.

    #116924
    zerosum
    Participant

    The UN is not listening or reading the translation.
    Will You?

    Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Ukraine, New York


    Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Ukraine, New York
    2973 Views September 26, 2022
    READ MORE …..

    With Ukrainian state support, the ideology of ethnic intolerance towards ethnic Russians is being imposed. The country’s officials are no longer ashamed of their Nazi-like nature, and openly and with impunity call for killing Russians.

    We have no doubt that Ukraine has finally turned into a Nazi-style totalitarian state where standards of international humanitarian law are trampled underfoot with impunity. It is no surprise that the Ukrainian armed forces and nationalist battalions resort to terrorist tactics and use civilians as “living shields.”

    The position of the states that are pumping Ukraine with weapons and combat equipment and training its armed forces is particularly cynical against this backdrop. The goal is obvious (they declare it rather than hide it) – to drag out the hostilities as much as possible despite the human losses and destruction in order to exhaust and weaken Russia. This implies the direct involvement of Western countries in the Ukrainian conflict, which is turning them into its party. The deliberate fuelling of this conflict by the collective West also goes without consequence. Indeed, they won’t punish themselves, will they?

    We have no illusions that today the armed forces of Russia and the defenders of the DPR and the LPR are opposed not only by the neo-Nazi units of the Kiev regime but also by the war machine of the “collective West”. NATO is supplying the Ukrainian armed forces with real-time intelligence information using modern systems, aircraft, ships, satellites and strategic drones. Ukraine is incited to defeat Russia on the battlefield (as EU officials openly say) and Russia must be deprived of any sovereignty by way of punishment. This is no longer latent racism. It is as overt as it can be

    #116925
    zerosum
    Participant

    New medias are not listening (Just looking for headlines, must be racists)

    Look Listen, Speak …. Think

    Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s news conference following the High-Level Week of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly, New York


    Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s news conference following the High-Level Week of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly, New York
    2903 Views September 26, 2022

    #116926
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Very good reasoning Dr. D and I am so happy that I get to be here warm with the wood stove going …

    #116927
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    ‘2 days ago, on 9/24/22 (when we were having our garden party at the homestead, and a big false-flag event did not take place) AFKTT did post extensive rational and factual data, theory and process regarding the near-term (our lifetimes) anthropogenic global warming, with comparison to documented human history, as well as to some geological history.
    It is worth a careful review.’

    Thank you, John Day.

    However, we must remember that the ‘debate’ about climate change has almost nothing to do with scientific facts or coherent, well-established explanations: it is primarily:

    1. the product of decades of misinformation generated and promulgated by banks, corporations, opportunists and governments -much of it via the controlled mainstream media- to keep consumption slaves locked into the established, but utterly dysfunctional political-economic system.

    2. emotional responses of individuals to having to face reality and the prospect of having to change their lifestyles.

    Thus, the more scientific facts that are presented, the more adherents to bizarre, non-scientific, anti-factual theories will hang on to their beliefs.

    As anyone with a brain that still functions properly knows, the entire fake money, and fake politics and fake energy policies and fake environmental policies, and fake medical system etc. has now reached the collapse phase.

    Imminent collapse is likely the main reason psychotic sociopaths and professional liars like Adern -who not so long ago declared herself to be ‘the source of all truth”- are desperate to silence truth-tellers and lock up all who persist in exposing the criminal nature of the regime they operate within; i.e. The Bretton Woods fiat currency scam, The World Bank, the IMF, the WEF, NATO etc.

    We must particularly note the utterly corrupted nature of the bulk of the UN, which shortly after is establishment went straight into Anglophone war mode in Korea, in direct breach of its own charter.

    Russia, formerly as the USSR, and since 1991, has been attempting to bring law and order to the international scene.

    As anyone who knows history knows (0.1% of the populace?) we are witnessing a rerun of the Cuban Crisis of the early 1960s. The US shipped long-range missiles to Turkey, and aimed them at Moscow and other important Soviet targets. The Soviets responded by sending long-range missiles to Cuba.

    The fascists who were in control of the US and UK etc. said: “You can’t do that!”

    Khrushchev said: “We just did. Would you like to remove the long-range weapons from Turkey now?”

    This transition, from a ‘rules-based’ system, in which fascists nations acting under the banner of ‘freedom and democracy’ make up whatever rules they think will benefit them in the short-term, to a genuine ‘rule-of-law’ based system, will be particularly painful for those immersed in the propaganda of TTATT.

    Meanwhile, the actual laws that matter -the laws of mathematic, chemistry, and physics etc. will continue to apply, as they have always applied, whatever the nutcases who think they are in control say or do.

    Gosh, I didn’t know there was any rainforest left in the Philppines.

    Big question, will hydrosaurus, Sail Dragons, survive in zoos after the last of the rainforests of the Philippines have been chopped down?

    Another question: when will the people of those islands cast off the yoke if the colonial name and revert to the names used before European (and later American) conquerors took over?

    #116928
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Well said, Dr D. 🙂 Prompts some serious thinking. Thank you.

    I believe climate change is up to God. He’ll figure it out, him and this little ol’ earth, with it’s mysterious cycles that humans pretend they understand using limited testing methods, data collection, and computer modeling.

    In the meantime, I keep my footprint as light as possible (yes, I actually do). In that, I’ve done my part, the rest is up to God.

    #116929
    DarkMatter
    Participant

    I have a Russian co-worker who doesn’t like Putin and claims he is pure evil. He still has family in Moscow and claims they are grabbing young men off the street for the army. He is trying to get his nephews to leave the city and spend some time at the family dacha until things blow over.
    He believes the referendum in Ukraine is not fair and sent me a link to this video. It says that so far the voting has been on the street and at people’s homes and that voting at a polling station will only be on the last day. It shows someone going door to door with an armed escort. The voting that is shown is anything but private. The video claims that people voting incorrectly are detained. If you watch the video you can get it to auto-translate with English subtitles, such as they are. I thought this might be of interest to people here.

    #116930
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    By the way, the war for Europe was lost in the 1930s, in Spain.

    Spanish people wanted to throw out the Catholic Chruch, tear down the hierarchical power structure and establish a ‘workers’ economy, based on freedom and democracy.

    That was utterly ‘unacceptable’ to the fascists who were losing the war. They hurriedly enlisted the help of the military who were on a conquer-poor-Africans spree at the time, and also enlisted the help the German fascists, who sent planes to bomb civilians to smithereens etc. Guernica and all that.

    The fascists won, and they installed their vicious dictator, Franco.

    It took a long time to get rid of the figure head, and there has been a pretence of democracy for a while, but reality the fascists still retain control of Spain. For the moment.

    A decade ago we knew ‘Dracula’ would suck the life out of Italy. He did.

    Not sure what he’s doing these days. The revolving doors of banking, corporatism and politics can be hard to follow at times.

    Having jabbed haff the population, the NZ ‘scorpion’ is now feeding off the corpse (along with her WEF sponsors, of course).

    Awaiting the moment when the Biden thing and the Yellen thing come out of the White House, hand in hand so she can stop him falling over and direct him to the right place to speak and announce the urgent need for $2 trillion to ‘save the US economy and prevent unemployment’ etc. just as Bush and Paulson did 2008.

    Of course the 760 billion Bush and Paulson demanded, and for which they could give no specific details of application, would be nowhere near enough this time round.

    It might be $3 trillion. or $5 trillion.

    Apparently it was taking $5 billion a month to keep the Zelensky sick comedy show operating. And costs are going up by the day.

    #116931
    John Day
    Participant

    AFKTT points out that we are not often discussing climate-change/global-warming, just as we seldom get to discuss science.

    We only get to shout about “SCIENCE” and “GLOBAL-WARMING/CLIMATE-CHANGE”, because the societal conversation has been co-opted by vested-interests and whatever they are selling the governments and people this year, like COVID-vaccines and carbon-credits.

    #116932
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ DBS

    You lost me right here.

    “The second approach is a generalized explanation of that event in terms of First Principles, so that all can see that the specific event is mere evidence, of the more important First Principle which resulted in the event happening in the first place. This approach is quite Logical, Scientific, Philosophical and Spiritual in nature. It’s not weird in the least but it is quite foreign territory for most people (who prefer mundane) , so people are prone to skipping that part.”

    Just because things are, why does that require there be an explanation?
    Explanation that is the truth?
    Can the explanation change with each occurrence?
    What do you think the probably of the explanation being the truth actually is?

    I don’t think this knowledge is required to live a beautiful life.

    #116933
    John Day
    Participant

    “Events In Progress” is up. Picture of most-cold-tolerant avocado tree, a unique individual from seed, unharmed by hard freeze in March that killed or injured all the others https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/events-in-progress

    We had a garden-party at the homestead Saturday, September 24, 2022, and I didn’t look at the internet until bedtime, but no world-changing-event-like-9/11 happened.
    Xi Jinping went underground. There’s no evidence of a coup d’etat.
    ​ ​The Chinese rumor mill has gotten out of control over the last 48 hours. For those who have not heard the rumors, Xi has been supposedly removed in a coup ahead of October’s Party Congress.
    By Sept. 24, Xi Jinping had become one of the top trending topics on Twitter. His name appeared on hashtags more than 42,000 times and the term “China coup” circulated 9,300 rounds on the platform, according to The Epoch Times.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/about-those-rumors-chinese-coup

    Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov made some statements at the UN. Here is a brief excerpt. He also gave a press conference, but I think he avoided saying more than this.
    “Colleagues,
    As I understand it, today’s meeting was motivated by a striving to discuss the issue of “impunity” in Ukraine. I consider this to be timely. This term fully reflects what has been taking place in that country since 2014. At that time, nationalist radical forces, overt Russophobes and neo-Nazis came to power there because of an armed coup, with direct support from the Western countries. Immediately after this, they embarked on a path of lawlessness and complete neglect for basic human rights and freedoms – the right to life, freedom of speech, access to information, freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and the use of a native tongue.
    The crimes committed in Maidan Square in February 2014 have gone unpunished to this day. Those guilty of the monstrous tragedy in Odessa on May 2, 2014 have not been found and punished. During this tragedy, about 50 people were burned alive and killed in the local House of Trade Unions. The political assassinations of Oles Buzina, Pavel Sheremet and other public figures and journalists are in the same category. Despite this, attempts are being made to impose on us a completely different narrative about Russian aggression as the prime cause for these problems. In the process, people ignore the fact that for over eight years the Ukrainian army and militants from nationalist groups have been killing Donbass residents with impunity only because they refused to recognise the outcome of the criminal, bloody, anti-constitutional coup in Kiev and decided to uphold their rights as guaranteed by Ukraine’s constitution, including the right to freely use their native Russian tongue.”

    Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Ukraine, New York

    ​ ​The referenda on joining Russia are continuing in the Donbass republics and Russian-controlled regions of southern Ukraine. On Sunday, the turnout already reached the required 50% threshold in the Donetsk and Lugansk republics and Zaporozhye Region, with only Kherson lagging behind.
    ​ ​In the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), more than 76% of eligible voters have already cast their votes, according to official figures. The referendum in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is proceeding at a similar pace, with some 77% of voters having shown up at the polling stations.
    ​ ​Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, which were largely seized by Russian forces amid the ongoing conflict, have demonstrated a lower turnout. Still, the latter region has already met the required legal threshold, with some 51.55% of registered voters already casting their ballots, according to the head of the Zaporozhye electoral committee, Galina Katyshenko. Kherson has so far demonstrated lower turnout, with nearly 49% of voters showing up for the referendum. Polls across the two regions and in the Donbass republics are set to stay open for the next two days.
    https://www.rt.com/russia/563509-donbass-referendums-turnout-figures/

    ​ ​”Taking into account the preliminary results of the referendums and Russia’s readiness to acknowledge them, the accession of the territories is likely to take place as early as on September 30,” the unnamed member of Russia’s State Duma said to TASS.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/kremlin-indicates-ukrainian-territories-be-absorbed-russia-weeks-end

    #116934
    John Day
    Participant

    Ukrainian “Hit List” Publishes Names and Addresses of Alleged “Russian Propagandists:” Turns Out to be Based Not in Ukraine But in Langley VA Where CIA Headquarters Is Located

    Ukrainian “Hit List” Publishes Names and Addresses of Alleged “Russian Propagandists:” Turns Out to be Based Not in Ukraine But in Langley VA Where CIA Headquarters Is Located

    US military using tool that captures ‘93% of the internet’ – senator
    Ron Wyden has demanded a probe into the warrantless use of data from a near-omniscient company
    ​ ​Wyden’s own investigation of the whistleblower’s claim appeared to reveal that US Cyber Command, the Army, FBI, and Secret Service had also purchased the company’s data sets. An investigation by Motherboard found they paid a total of $3.5 million to use Team Cymru’s tool Augury, which allegedly can access 93% of internet traffic. It uses a technology called packet capture data (PCAP), which one cybersecurity technology professional referred to as “everything… there’s nothing else to capture except the smell of electricity.”
    ​ ​A spokesman from the Navy Office of Information told Motherboard that “The use of net flow data by NCIS does not require a warrant,” claiming the agency had not used netflow for criminal investigation purposes – only for “various counterintelligence purposes.” The other agencies which reportedly purchased Augury did not respond.
    https://www.rt.com/news/563433-augury-military-internet-tracking-wyden/

    ​ ​Ukraine expels Iranian Ambassador after 5 Iranian military attack drones, used by Russian forces, are shot down by Ukrainian military.​ ​https://babel.ua/en/news/84679-ukraine-expels-the-ambassador-of-iran-because-of-the-drones-used-by-russia-in-the-war

    Israel and Lebanon, officially at war since 1948, approach final agreement on offshore gas deposits off their shared coastal waters in the Mediterranean Sea. https://www.globalresearch.ca/lebanese-israeli-off-shore-agreement-may-end-lebanese-financial-crisis/5794516

    Trudge of the “light” brigade… Massed Syrian refugees are marched towards Germany by Turkey, and are approaching the Greek border. The “convoy of light”, consisting of 40,000 Syrian refugees who were in Turkey, began its march towards Germany.​ ​The news of this evening and probably in the coming weeks in Germany will be tracking the route of the Convoy, which Turkey promised to release to Europe. The number of convoys of light may already be about a dozen this autumn. The main question is whether the Greek authorities will interfere with the passage of the “Convoy of Light”, to the borders of which the refugees will approach by the end of next week.​ ​https://en.rua.gr/2022/09/12/goes-to-the-borders-of-greece-convoy-of-light/

    #116936
    John Day
    Participant

    Michael Hudson Discusses Debt, Financial Surveillance, the Fed and More With (clueless, doctrinaire, pushy and irritating) ​Ralph Nader​ (Transcript included)​ ​https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/09/michael-hudson-discusses-debt-financial-surveillance-the-fed-and-more-with-ralph-nader.html

    Painfully obvious graph after painfully obvious graph of age-stratified excess deaths before and after COVID-vaccine rollout. COVID Vaccines Linked to Excess Deaths in Germany — Where’s the Investigation?
    An analysis by two German university professors of government data implicates COVID-19 vaccination as a factor in excess deaths in Germany, however, public health officials in Germany, the U.S. and elsewhere continue to ignore safety signals. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/covid-vaccines-excess-deaths-germany/

    I think I posted this last December, but it remains a very good reference on the mechanisms of ivermectin against COVID. The mechanisms of action of ivermectin against SARS-CoV-2—an extensive review​ ​
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41429-021-00491-6

    ​Pierre Kory MD The Criminal Censorship Of Ivermectin By The High Impact Medical Journals – Part 3
    The unprecedented numbers of retractions of positive studies of ivermectin continued to mount. Just more evidence of the increasingly brazen actions taken by the high-impact journal “Editorial Mafia.”
    https://pierrekory.substack.com/p/the-criminal-censorship-of-ivermectin-418

    This is from last April, but well worth reposting. This is extensive and references every statement with a medical citation. Russell Blaylock MD (I choose one little excerpt)
    COVID UPDATE: What is the truth?
    Neither Anthony Fauci, the CDC, WHO nor any medical governmental establishment has ever offered any early treatment other than Tylenol, hydration and call an ambulance once you have difficulty breathing. This is unprecedented in the entire history of medical care as early treatment of infections is critical to saving lives and preventing severe complications. Not only have these medical organizations and federal lapdogs not even suggested early treatment, they attacked anyone who attempted to initiate such treatment with all the weapons at their disposal—loss of license, removal of hospital privileges, shaming, destruction of reputations and even arrest.[2]
    A good example of this outrage against freedom of speech and providing informed consent information is the recent suspension by the medical board in Maine of Dr. Meryl Nass’ medical license and the ordering of her to undergo a psychiatric evaluation for prescribing Ivermectin and sharing her expertise in this field.[9,65] I know Dr, Nass personally and can vouch for her integrity, brilliance and dedication to truth. Her scientific credentials are impeccable. This behavior by a medical licensing board is reminiscent of the methodology of the Soviet KGB during the period when dissidents were incarcerated in psychiatric gulags to silence their dissent. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9062939/

    #116937
    Michael Reid
    Participant


    THE PURPOSE OF THE FURIN CLEAVAGE SITE AND THE GP120 INSERT IS TO INDUCE SYSTEMIC FIBROSIS AND CANCER VIA THE ENDOTHELIUM: SPED GP120 AND FURIN. THE FURIN FEEDBACK LOOP. FIBROSIS AND ONCOGENESIS.

    https://wmcresearch.substack.com/p/the-purpose-of-the-furin-cleavage

    #116938
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Learning from Ants

    Learning from Ants

    #116939
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Plague is here, he needs some limes to go with the Corona

    Run for your life, cause Winter is Coming too.

    .

    #116940
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    “I never said Covid vaccinations were safe and effective. You must have misheard me.”

    Faucci
    Biden
    Trudeau
    Adern……

    Meanwhile, back in the ‘real world’, Brent oil is ‘dropping like a stone’ despite the world being well past the peak of extraction and the cost of extraction rising by the month.

    “See, the market ‘works’!!!. When people, or entire nations, are so impoverished they can no longer afford oil, the price drops.”

    “When the supply of natural gas is reduced, the price surges.”

    Obviously, we must persist with such a ‘successful’ system of resource management.

    #116941
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    And silence or murder all those who disagree.

    #116942
    Redneck
    Participant

    “The Russians don’t make nuclear threats” is the winner of the Porky Pie headline award to day. Putin himself threatened the West in his speech a few days back. Admittedly he nuanced it as he likes to appear so virtuous but it was a threat and that threatening has been going on for quite a while , at least since Russia acquired it’s Hyper missiles.His words were , “The West has to understand that if certain weapons exist , taboos and limitations on using them could be lifted in certain circumstances”.
    Once the sham referendums are done and the newly annexed territories are inside the Russian border , then those “certain circumstances” will be met which allows Russia to use nuclear devices in line with it’s rules of engagement. This is self evident to any body who understands the situation.
    This is the latest attempt to scare , to bluff the West and the Ukys into submission. The first bluff was the SMO which failed rather badly as demonstrated by the ned for the implementation of a Russian draft.
    Ukraine and the West will call this bluff also as it is mere hyperbole.
    What Putin does not say overtly the Russian press says for him. The Russian press is just as self censoring as the West and knows it’s lines.
    One of the Russian commentators was saying how the Russians really missed a big opportunity by not nuking the UK when the queen’s funeral was on . Upon being advised that the UK has some hundreds of nuclear weapons itself , his reply was that we have many more and that we are so much more powerful it does not matter about the UK weapons. The Russian hubris has been turned up to eleven and still ascending.
    It seems that Russian propaganda has been very successful at convincing people around the world that Russians are very virtuous and should be respected as such . I myself was a believer but recently I have actually taken a clearer look at their situation and have changed my opinion . For example Russia has the fifth highest prisoner incarceration rates in the world. They have recently started to engineer that down by allowing the Wagner group to recruit from the prison population for their supply of fighters against Ukraine. So after surviving six months at the front your newly pardoned child murder/rapist will be living next door to some one in Russia. Nice.
    My position now is closer to seeing that the Russians and the Ukys have a lot similar traits and probably deserve each other.

    #116943
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    EU central bank warns ‘outlook is darkening’

    https://www.rt.com/news/563560-european-central-bank-inflation-growth/

    #116944
    Redneck
    Participant

    Age restricted??????????

    #116945
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Worst bond market crash in over 70 years coming – Bloomberg

    https://www.rt.com/business/563535-worst-bond-market-crash/

    #116946
    zerosum
    Participant

    Redneck
    You are allowed to express your opinion.
    I have my opinion.
    Keep yours and I’ll keep mine.
    zerosum

    #116947
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @MichaelReid “You lost me right there.”

    I’m unclear on why or how I lost you.

    To recap the event and my proposed explanation. The event that happened is the first slow and now rapid dissolution of the wealth and power of the British Crown monarchical system, and the explanation is that monarchy is an intrinsically flawed concept which always fails because authoritarianism is based on misconception that monarchy makes logical sense (it does not, even though monarchs claim that it does.

    Your comment continued with, “Just because things are, why does that require there be an explanation? Explanation that is the truth? Can the explanation change with each occurrence?
    What do you think the probably [probability] of the explanation being the truth actually is?
    I don’t think this knowledge is required to live a beautiful life.”

    I fully agree that this knowledge is not required to live a beautiful life, but I do not see the connection between that statement and what I posted about the reasons for the ongoing ‘centuries-in-the-process’ collapse of Monarchy throughout the world.

    I would be happy to discus it, but first I would need to better understand your objections.

    #116948
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ DBS

    I agree that Monarchy is a flawed concept.

    My comment was based on the words read up to the point quoted, which caused me to comment and move on. At that point I thought you were setting up a proof for god. I later returned to see you were commenting on Monarchy.

    But even this part of your comment
    “so the very idea of a national or imperial monarch (other than God himself) is just ludicrous nonsense”
    What is a man to make of it if he does not believe in god?

    I don’t know much about it but didn’t kings sell the idea that they represent god to the ruled?

    #116950
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Redneck said

    The first bluff was the SMO which failed rather badly as demonstrated by the ned for the implementation of a Russian draft.

    The SMO captured the pro-Russian regions of Ukraine and Russia will now absorb them into their country. They have also made it clear to the west that any attempt to take them back will be considered a full scale assault on Russia, which, under their existing rules will permit them to defend itself using nuclear weapons. How is this losing? You obviously hate Russia as much as you hate reality.

    #116951
    aspnaz
    Participant

    DBS said

    Perhaps it is even the first highly visible stage of the end of hierarchy itself

    When person A drops litter in the road, there is often a person B willing to scold person A for dropping that litter, and there will certainly be others willing to quietly disapprove of person A’s actions. In such circumstances, person B is taking the role of authoritarian, telling person A how he must behave. Authoritarianism is part of nature, your parents are the first, the hierarchy is part of nature, your parents are the first, there is no ridding ourselves of nature, however much we may dislike bits of it.

    Monarchy may be outdated, but the essence of monarchy – the centralised control by ruling elites – will last forever. although it will receive various face lifts until centralized AI – the ultimate monarch – takes over.

    #116953
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @MichaelReid

    @MichaelReid

    Thank you for clarifying the puzzle for me. I think I get it, and (if I am getting it right) it also seems we’re in close enough accord on the main issue (monarchy being intrinsically flawed) that muskets can be lowered.

    Incidentally, you also asked, “What is a man to make of it if he does not believe in god?”

    My answer is that belief in god is not a prerequisite to finding God, so long as you just keep asking the right questions and insisting on true answers. Prejudicially ruling out the possibility, such that it is dismissed before fair and full inspection would close the door of course, but otherwise you might be on your way to God and not even know it until some future moment of enlightenment. Who knows?

    For myself, I am as certain of the existence of God as I am of the existence of existence, but even if I were not yet convinced of that, the way I approached life’s problems guaranteed that the conclusion was inevitable: an informed and unequivocal awareness of the existence of divinity. I could prove it to anyone willing to listen . . . . but that’s a heap of listening and an even bigger heap of willingness than I have any right to expect of anyone and so I expect it of no one.

    Getting back to those ancient Kings claiming a reserved seat in God’s line-up and a hot line to God’s ear. Well of course they would say something like that. They’d say anything if it kept the peasants in line and the coffers filled. I wouldn’t believe a word they said. I would not believe it was Tuesday, on Tuesday, if it were a King who told me so.

    #116954
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Politico
    White House anxiously watches Meloni’s rise to power

    US’s hubris and hyperbole aside; so fragile and insecure…
    Russias’ independence must be rattling cages…

    #116955
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    What an excellent and concise analogy, and I would even extend it to include Person B enlisting the assistance the others (with appeals to their self-interests as motivational persuasion) to collaborate in enforcing their authoritarianism over person A. The foundation of authority is, after all, “ganging up” as the main means and method of acquiring power in order to win, which we see so pervasively in so-called “cancel culture”, dictatorships and empire.

    But we also know, however, that the logical and psychological mechanisms of such authoritarian strategies always and only end in those systems eating their young and failing in horrible paroxysms of suicidally bizarre insanity.

    “Nature’s” answer to these failures is, of course, evidenced in the observed inevitability of alterations of the strategy, such that a later “new and improved” version thrives more than the earlier version and either supplants or replaces it. Version 1.0 gives way to Version 1.001a , And so it goes. “Evolution” if you will.

    The world (indeed the Universe) is what it is, and will only be incrementally different in each of it’s future iterations. So if there was centralized control by ruling elites yesterday then there will certainly be such things tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow . . . . and so on, too.

    It looks repetitive and inevitable unless one stands back and notices that it is changing, and that the state of affairs tomorrow is NEVER the same as the state was yesterday, and that over the long haul (even a “long haul” as brief as the one on Earth) that there seems to be an ‘All Natural Ingredients’ world developing that is in some indefinable way actually better and more gratifying to individuals of all species than the more primitive versions.

    The tooth and claw “law of the jungle” which is necessary to the continuance of organic life is unlikely to go away anytime soon (we fervently hope), but at the same time, and very much in addition to it, is the undeniable fact that there does distinctly seem to be a kind of progress which is running in the other direction, away from authoritarian elite hierarchy and toward spiritual (if you will) sovereignty and freedom.

    Should that spiritual sovereignty ever be fully achieved it will be “Game Over”, of course, but I don’t think we have to worry about that happening any time soon either. And it would certainly be a less agonizing way to check out of this “Hotel California” than what the WEF has in mind.

    I do believe there is a way out of this place that does not involve winding up as a line of digital code in some monstrous AI, or as a meal in the belly of a predator.

    Perhaps a balance is possible, wherein we have the benefits of abstract reasoning and so-called “intelligence”, without literally identifying ourselves as BEING the tools that we are merely USING.

    That’s the direction which interests me.

    #116956
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Kind of hilarious when you have escaped from the Matrix:

    #116959
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    A Tale of Two Narratives, Ukraine Edition

    * The Mainstream Narrative
    – Vladimir Putin is an evil autocrat who has turned Russia into a fascist state. Putin has more or less ruined Russia
    – Under Vladimir Putin Russia meddled in the US 2016 election and helped get Donald Trump elected
    – The 2014 color revolution in Ukraine was democracy in action and rid the country of a leader who was a Russian puppet.
    – The Russian Special Military Operation was an unprovoked attack on Ukraine
    – Nothing Ukraine or the west could have done would have stopped the unprovoked Russian attack
    – Russia attacked Ukraine because it wants to expand its empire to that of the Soviet Union and beyond
    – The Ukrainians are willing to negotiate but the Russians are not
    – The Donbas region and Crimea are part of Ukraine and under no circumstances should be part of Russia
    – Russia has weaponized their natural resources and has caused massive economic damage in Europe
    – The US and Europe are morally obligated to support the effort of Ukraine to expel the Russians by giving them advanced weapons systems
    – The referendum is a sham and will not be a true representation of the will of the people in the Donbas region and should not be used as an excuse for Russia to annex the region
    – Russia cannot be trusted, period
    – Russia is losing the war in Ukraine and will have to accept total defeat and terms of peace dictated by Ukraine and the west
    – If Russia loses it will be the end of the Russian Federation. If Ukraine loses it will be the end of US dollar denominated hegemony
    – The risk of a nuclear war is terrifying and if it happens Russia will be mostly to blame.

    * The Counter Narrative
    – Vladimir Putin is a Christian and a patriot who has kept Russia out of the clutches of oligarchs and transnational-corporations. He has more or less saved Russia
    – Russia had little effect on the US 2016 election. The reports of Russian election meddling are fabricated misinformation.
    – The US and the CIA engineered the Ukraine color revolution in 2014 overthrowing the democratically elected government of Ukraine replacing it with a western puppet
    – The Russian Special Military Operation was in response to multiple provocation including the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO and the shelling of the Donbas region
    – If Russian demands that Ukraine never join NATO and that the Donbas region have relative autonomy had been met the Russians would not have invaded Ukraine
    – Russia’s main goal is to keep NATO forces from its borders.
    – The Russians are willing to negotiate but the Ukrainians are not
    – The Donbas regions and Crimea were historically part of Russia and it is reasonable for them to be part of Russia again
    – US and EU sanctions of Russia have caused a disruption of energy flows from Russia to Europe and are responsible for massive economic damage in Europe
    – The US and Europe are prolonging the war by supporting Ukraine with advanced weapons systems. They don’t really care about Ukraine and are using the conflict as a proxy war to destroy Russia
    – The referendum is a reasonable way to judge the will of the people in the Donbas region and if they overwhelmingly support reunification with Russia then the region should be annexed by Russia.
    – The US and Europe cannot be trusted, period
    – Ukraine is losing the war and will be forced to accept terms of peace dictated by the Russians
    – If Russia loses it will be the end of the Russian Federation. If Ukraine loses it will be the end of US dollar denominated hegemony
    – The risk of a nuclear war is terrifying and if it happens the US and Europe will be mostly to blame

    #116961
    aspnaz
    Participant

    TAE Summary said:

    Russia attacked Ukraine because it wants to expand its empire to that of the Soviet Union and beyond

    Looking through your “Mainstream Narrative”, this seems to be the only component that points to any real motive for Russia’s SMO. I judge this as telling us more about western thinking than Putin’s thinking.

    #116962
    aspnaz
    Participant

    TAE Summary said

    A Tale of Two Narratives, Ukraine Edition

    This raises one of the very interesting aspects of the Ukraine/NATO war with Russia. NATO is hiding behind Ukraine so that the people of the west will blame Russia and support NATO intervention, or at least that appears to have been the intention although it is not working out so well. With Russia permitting NATO to pretend to be on the “sidelines”, none of the NATO countries have declared “emergency war powers” – a war footing – which means that there are two narratives, None of the NATO countries can clamp down on the second narrative, on “enemy propaganda” or “enemy sympathizers who listen to enemy propaganda” because they are not at war. I am very sure that should NATO officially join the war, emergency powers will be used against all alternative internet sites and their owners will become targets. Will the majority of the populations support this or has the veil been lifted too far now for the majority to be fooled?

    #116963
    aspnaz
    Participant

    DBS said

    I do believe there is a way out of this place that does not involve winding up as a line of digital code in some monstrous AI, or as a meal in the belly of a predator.

    I would say move to Italy to experience the revolution, but that would imply that I trust democracy and/or politicians, both of which are under massive strain/pressure.

    #116975
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    ‘So 180-1,500ppm. Which is the best number? You say 280. Why 280?;

    180 ppm corresponds with ice sheets covering 1/3 of the land masses, i.e., covering most of England down to the [completely frozen] Thames and an ice sheet down to Kentucky; also corresponding to people living in caves in southern Spain.

    1,500 ppm corresponds to no ice anywhere on Earth and tropical jungles or Argentina-like savannah in northern Canada; also correspond to around seas around 200 metres above sea current level.

    I really think you need to do a lot of research on the Halocene, menti9oned previously in the discussion.

    Above 350 ppm triggers methane release from methane clathrates, causing uncontrollable feedbacks that lead to a 3-to-10oC increase in average temperature.

    The Precautionary Principle, previously highlighted by me on this forum, and ignored (of course).

    #116976
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Don’t forget that the Earth has two long-term stable states: rather cold and rather hot. The past 5,600 years have been unusually temperate.

    The shift from temperate stable to superheated is underway.

    Overheating is poses an existential risk.

    However, all the ‘official’ responses to the existential threat are scams, and the vast majority of ‘official’ responses make the predicament far worse faster.

    #116982
    aspnaz
    Participant

    AFKTT said

    The Precautionary Principle, previously highlighted by me on this forum, and ignored (of course).

    So you know people ignore you. As a pseudo scientist, where does the evidence lead you as to why that is? Have you built a theory, you know, other than the usual “they are all morons” tripe? Anyway, I thought you were going to piss off, that’s what you said the other day. What happened? Separation anxiety? You dug a hole in the living room sofa and realised you needed to get back to TAE?

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