Sep 272022
 
 September 27, 2022  Posted by at 8:33 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Marcel Duchamp About young sister 1911

 

This Is the Way the World Ends (Jim Kunstler)
Ukrainian Territories To Be Absorbed Into Russia By Week’s End: Lawmaker (ZH)
All the Young Dudes, Carry the -Russian- News (Escobar)
Zelensky Reveals US Pays Ukraine $1.5 Billion Per Month (RT)
Putin Considering Talks With Kiev On New Conditions – Turkish FM (RT)
German Energy Apocalypse Update V (Eugyp)
Germany Suspects ‘Targeted Attack’ On Russian Gas Pipelines (RT)
The US Is Winning Its War On Europe’s Industries And People (MoA)
West Should Treat Us With Respect – Putin (RT)
Poland Slams ‘Scandalous’ Von der Leyen Warning (RT)
Russia And The US Still Have Time To Prevent A Nuclear War (Trenin)
Orban Says EU Sanctions on Russia Have ‘Backfired’ (R.)
Moscow Tells US To ‘Back Off’ With ‘Aggressive’ Course (RT)
Moscow Grants Russian Citizenship To Edward Snowden (AP)
Roger Waters Pens Open Letter To Putin (RT)
Trouble About The Corona Vaccine Deal: Why Is Von Der Leyen Stonewalling? (MP)
Just 1.5% Of Eligible Americans Have Gotten Updated COVID Booster (ZH)

 

 

 

 

Meloni identity
https://twitter.com/i/status/1574263707001008129

 

 

 

 

Net Zero
https://twitter.com/i/status/1574280761913524224

 

 

This one is a bit older.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Madame von der Leyen’s fellow Germans have already been sent to their room without so much as a kartoffelklop, plus no heat or hot showers for you, Hansel and Gretel.”

This Is the Way the World Ends (Jim Kunstler)

The bond market has gone south, and that spells The End for the great game of financialization. The bond market is Moby Dick compared to the little blowfish that is the stock market. The global money system is based on bonds, which are… what? That’s right: loans… promises to pay you X at some future moment. So, what happens when a daisy-chain of promises-to-pay gets broken? Or, perhaps more precisely, when all those promises lose their last shred of plausible reality? Why, the money that these broken promises are denominated in loses its essential cred. Trick question: how much is worthless money worth? (Answer: not enough to pay for a can of Schrödinger’s cat food.) Which is where all this folderol leaves a lot of ordinary people all over Western Civ (and beyond!) trying to scratch up enough increasingly worthless money to feed the family and pay the landlord. Many will never understand what happened. But they will not be any less pissed off at the result.

This is the way the world ends for the hapless phantom known as “Joe Biden” the child-sniffing ectoplasm that haunts the White House these days of late empire. Somehow, the bamboozled nation has so far passively accepted the pranks and punishments laid on them by the backstage managers behind the Figment-in-Chief. Eight-plus percent inflation? No problemo, right? Eighty-five thousand new IRS agents on-board to drive you batshit while destroying your household and your posterity (ha!)? Half the population of South America flooding across the border? (The vibrancy! You no like?) A hundred dollar fill-up at the gas pump, and no heat for you this winter? (But… Netflix!) Drag queens to amuse and edify your children about the delirious realm of sexual pathology. All that…and how about a Russian hypersonic nuclear missile up your ass if the preceding somehow failed to move you? (Because: Russia, Russia, Russia…!)


Meanwhile, a trend is manifesting in other lands. The people of, first, Sweden and now Italy are voting in “right wing” nationalist governments — the horror — sending their equivalent of our Party of Chaos to the showers. This has irked the President of the European Union, one Ursula von der Leyen, no end. She has threatened to send Italy to its room without supper for the effrontry. Of course, Madame von der Leyen’s fellow Germans have already been sent to their room without so much as a kartoffelklop, plus no heat or hot showers for you, Hansel and Gretel. Embrace the suck.

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No way back.

Ukrainian Territories To Be Absorbed Into Russia By Week’s End: Lawmaker (ZH)

With four occupied regions of Ukraine currently in the midst of a five-day referendum on whether to join the Russian federation, a Kremlin lawmaker told state media over the weekend that the territories are likely to be absorbed by Russia on September 30. “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. Voting is set to conclude Tuesday in Donestk, Luhansk and the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, meaning as early as Wednesday or even Thursday announcements of results are likely to trickle out, paving the way for a potential Friday official declaration.


While Russian forces do not yet control the entirety of each of these territories, their annexation would constitute Ukraine losing almost 20% of its geographic territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin might himself make the proclamation following the referendums, which Ukrainian leaders along with Washington have dismissed as a “sham” – saying they won’t be recognized. Russian media reports indicate: The lawmaker said Russian President Vladimir Putin could take part in the procedure on September 30. “I don’t know if he will [participate], but he is likely to do so,” the MP said. Given that on Saturday Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov vowed new territories would be under Russia’s “full protection” – there is more than likely to be a major uptick in the intensity of fighting to follow the referenda results announcement in eastern Ukraine.

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“..after so many years, Moscow is finally fully committed to supporting Donbass all the way to the baby bears coming to Mama for good.”

All the Young Dudes, Carry the -Russian- News (Escobar)

Moscow’s rerouted strategy takes maskirovka – mask, feint, fool the enemy – to another level, actually dropping the mask, plus the velvet gloves. Now it’s all very clear: this is turbo-charged Sun Tzu (“May your plans be dark and impenetrable like the night, and when you move, strike like lightning.”) There will be plenty of strikes like lightning ahead in the Ukrainian battlefield. This is the culmination of a process that started in Samarkand, during the SCO summit last week. According to diplomatic sources, Putin and Xi Jinping had a very serious conversation. Xi asked tough questions – as in you must finish this off – and Putin arguably explained how things would reach the next level.

Yoda Patrushev was on the road to China immediately afterwards – meeting with his Yoda counterpart Yang Jiechi, head of the Foreign Affairs Commission, and the secretary of the Central Political and Legal Committee, Guo Shengkun. Following-up on Samarkand, Patrushev outlined how Moscow will help Beijing militarily when the Empire tries anything funny in the next battlefield: Asia-Pacific. That should happen under the framework of the SCO. Crucially, the Patrushev meetings were requested by the Chinese. So the Russia-China strategic partnership is about to achieve full-fledged cooperation before the going gets tough in the South China Sea. It’s as if Russia-China were on the brink of creating their own CSTO.

And that is happening even as the Chinese leadership continues to express – mostly in private – that war in Russia’s western borderlands is very bad for business (BRI, EAEU, SCO, BRICS+, all of them) and should be wrapped up a.s.a.p. The problem is a swift wrap-up is off the cards. Foreign Minister Lavrov, in New York for the UN General Assembly, has stressed how. “Ukraine has eventually become a totalitarian Nazi sort of state” – unconditionally supported by the collective West. NATOstan has predictably doubled down on its tactics since the non-response response to Russia’s demand for a serious discussion on indivisibility of security, in late 2021: it’s always about shelling Donbass. This could not possibly be tolerated anymore by the Kremlin and Russian public opinion.

Thus the partial mobilization – forcefully proposed by the siloviki and the Security Council for quite a while now, with Kostyukov at GRU, Naryshkin at SVR and Bortnikov at FSB on the forefront. The symbolism is powerful: after so many years, Moscow is finally fully committed to supporting Donbass all the way to the baby bears coming to Mama for good. There are – unconfirmed – rumors in Moscow that the decision was accelerated because GRU has intel on the Americans soon transferring long-range missiles to Kiev capable of striking Russian cities. That’s beyond a red line for the Kremlin – hence Putin’s express mention that every weapon available in Russia’s mighty arsenal will be used to protect the Motherland.

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Lowballing.

Zelensky Reveals US Pays Ukraine $1.5 Billion Per Month (RT)

The Ukrainian government is being heavily supported with American money, with Washington contributing $1.5 billion per month to the budget, Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky has revealed. The sum was mentioned by the Ukrainian leader during an interview with CBS host Margaret Brennan for the ‘Face the Nation’ program, which was aired on Sunday. Currently Kiev runs “a deficit of $5 billion in our budget,” Zelenksy said, adding that “the United States gives us $1.5 billion every month to support our budget to fight” against Russia. Zelensky argued that arming and otherwise helping Ukraine militarily is a “win-win” for the US. He pledged that once Russia is defeated, the Ukrainian people will return to their home country and start paying taxes there, relieving the burden on American taxpayers.

“For the United States, it will be significant savings, but for us, it will be an opportunity to secure our territory and make it safe for our population,” he stated. US President Joe Biden has pledged to help Ukraine “for as long as it takes” to secure a strategic defeat of Russia, which he declared Washington’s ultimate goal in the conflict. Many Americans do not share the president’s view that the situation in Ukraine is crucial. According to the conservative election pollster Rasmussen Reports, it failed to make the top-ten list of issues of concern for likely voters. Earlier this month, the Biden administration asked Congress to authorize some $12 billion in additional aid for Ukraine, including $4.5 billion to support the Kiev government financially beyond September. It asked for $2 billion on top of that, to help Ukraine offset rising energy prices.


The package is expected to be approved on Friday, but some political analysts question whether the cash flows to Ukraine can be sustained after the midterm elections in November. “America can’t afford to provide a blank checkbook to Ukraine when we have inflation, gas prices, a supply chain crisis, all of the above, going on at home,” a GOP lawmaker told Politico, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “That’s what I’m hearing from my voters.” The outlet predicted that if the Republican Party wins the House, Biden will face more resistance to his requests for emergency aid to Ukraine.

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“In the course of negotiations with our president, Putin announced the possibility of returning to negotiations with Kiev, but on new conditions that have appeared,”

Putin Considering Talks With Kiev On New Conditions – Turkish FM (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering resuming talks with Ukraine, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday. The top diplomat made the remarks during a press conference in Tokyo where he’s attending the funeral of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in July. According to Cavusoglu, Putin floated the idea during a conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the recent summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. “In the course of negotiations with our president, Putin announced the possibility of returning to negotiations with Kiev, but on new conditions that have appeared,” Cavusoglu was quoted as saying, He didn’t elaborate on the “conditions” specified.

The minister also reiterated Ankara’s desire to stage direct talks between Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. “Our president will continue his contacts with Putin and Zelensky. Our aim is to bring the two leaders together to ensure that decisions are made at the level of the leaders,” Cavusoglu said. Top Russian officials have repeatedly said Moscow has been ready to talk with Kiev, pinning the blame for the stalled negotiations on the Ukrainian side. Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said dialogue is “of course needed,” adding that Putin had already explained that “Ukraine left the negotiations several months ago.”


Apart from declaring the goal of defeating Moscow on the battlefield, Ukrainian officials have also reacted angrily to the referendums on joining Russia, currently ongoing in the Donbass republics and Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions in southern Ukraine. On Sunday, Zelensky warned that should Russia complete the vote, it would “make it impossible, in any case, to continue any diplomatic negotiations” with Moscow.

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“Normally” Eugyppius writes on Covid. But he’s in Germany…

German Energy Apocalypse Update V (Eugyp)

Germany has nationalised the gas importer Uniper, to save it from insolvency in the face of the Gazprom gas stoppage. Robert Habeck’s earlier scheme to save Uniper and other importers involved the imposition of a gas surcharge of 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour on all consumers, but the government appears ready to scrap this plan just days before it was set to go into effect. Instead, some politicians are now talking of capping gas prices, though as far as I can tell, nobody has any idea how. As the pressure builds and the first closures begin, Germany is entering an economic recession, and there are everyday renewed cracks in the political edifice.

Minister President of Saxony Michael Kretschmer (CDU) – no fringe political figure – recently remarked that Germany “cannot do without Russian gas” and acknowledged that EU sanctions are to blame for the shortage, but he stopped short of demanding that Nord Stream 2 be opened; instead, he hopes for a return to Russian gas after the Ukraine war has ended. The Greens in government remain committed to taking Germany’s last nuclear power plants offline by the end of the year, hoping that enough French nuclear plants will return to service over the winter to cover any resulting shortages. It is hard to imagine a more farcical approach to nuclear energy.

Meanwhile, the head mayor of Berlin has suggested that two- or three-hour periods of load-shedding may be necessary to keep the electrical grid functional over the winter. Other experts, while downplaying the risk of uncontrolled outages, have raised the possibility load-shedding as well, confirming that these are very real contingency plans and that we’re being prepared for them. The stated concern is invariably that local or regional gas shortages will cause the widespread activation of electrical heaters and overwhelm the grid, though how exactly this could be anticipated far enough in advanced for scheduled outages is unclear to me. Prices have increased vastly across the economy, and estimates are that up to 60 percent of German households are now committing their entire monthly income to cover the rising cost of living.

The depth of the crisis isn’t fully known, as loan defaults and similar economic signals won’t begin in earnest until 2023. And that’s it. There are no plans from the government, beyond doubtful price-tinkering, regulatory schemes and targeted financial assistance. If you look at those news outlets most guilty of Corona hysteria, like the state-funded Tagesschau or the Süddeutsche Zeitung, you find extremely muted reporting on the crisis. Instead, hyperventilation about Ukraine continues to dominate headlines; pieces on the energy apocalypse are either misleading items like this one, hailing a dip in gas prices, or trivial write-ups about whether cities should cancel their Christmas lighting this year.

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Well, the Russians don’t blow up their own pipelines…

Germany Suspects ‘Targeted Attack’ On Russian Gas Pipelines (RT)

While the loss of pressure in three natural gas pipelines between Russia and Germany is still officially being investigated, Berlin is reportedly no longer convinced it was a coincidence, and suspects a “targeted attack” on behalf of either Ukraine or Russia, the newspaper Tagesspiegel reported on Monday evening. Pressure in one of the Nord Stream 2 lines dropped sharply overnight, followed by the same happening to both Nord Stream 1 pipes on Monday afternoon. Denmark announced that a gas leak was spotted off the coast of Bornholm island in the Baltic Sea and closed the area for maritime traffic, but could not confirm if this was what caused the pressure loss.

According to Tagesspiegel, the German government and agencies investigating the incident “can’t imagine a scenario that isn’t a targeted attack,” according to an anonymous source familiar with their assessments. “Everything speaks against a coincidence.” The outlet explained that a deliberate attack on the bottom of the sea has to involve special forces, navy divers or a submarine. Berlin is reportedly examining two possible scenarios. In the first, Ukraine or “Ukraine-affiliated forces”could be behind the attack. The second option is that Russia did it as a “false flag,” to make Ukraine look bad and drive the EU energy prices even higher.


With Nord Stream offline since late August, Russian gas can only be delivered to Germany and central Europe via the older pipelines going through Poland and Ukraine, Tagesspiegel noted. “We are in the process of clarifying the situation here,” a spokeswoman for the federal ministry of economics told the outlet. “We don’t currently know what caused the pressure drop.” Nord Stream 1 was built in 2011. Construction on Nord Stream 2 began in 2018, and took much longer due to political pressure and economic sanctions from the US. NS2 was finished and pressurized by September 2021. However, two days prior to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, the German government put its certification on indefinite hold, and has categorically refused any suggestion from Moscow – or its own people – to unblock the pipeline.

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“Instead of a real military threat from Russia and China, the problem for American strategists is the absence of such a threat.”

The US Is Winning Its War On Europe’s Industries And People (MoA)

On February 7 Professor of Economics Michael Hudson explained why America’s Real Adversaries Are Its European and Other Allies: “What worries American diplomats is that Germany, other NATO nations and countries along the Belt and Road route understand the gains that can be made by opening up peaceful trade and investment. If there is no Russian or Chinese plan to invade or bomb them, what is the need for NATO? And if there is no inherently adversarial relationship, why do foreign countries need to sacrifice their own trade and financial interests by relying exclusively on U.S. exporters and investors?

These are the concerns that have prompted French President Macron to call forth the ghost of Charles de Gaulle and urge Europe to turn away from what he calls NATO’s “brain-dead” Cold War and break with the pro-U.S. trade arrangements that are imposing rising costs on Europe while denying it potential gains from trade with Eurasia. Even Germany is balking at demands that it freeze by this coming March by going without Russian gas. Instead of a real military threat from Russia and China, the problem for American strategists is the absence of such a threat.” What the U.S. needed was to provoke Russia, and later China, into reacting to U.S. arranged threats in a way that would oblige its ‘allies’ to follow its sanction policies. The rather dimwitted European leadership fell for the trick.


The U.S. arranged for a Ukrainian attack on the rebel held Donbas region. This started on February 17 with intense artillery preparations against Donbas positions as recorded by the OSCE observers at that border. Russia had to react or see the ethnic Russians in those areas getting maimed and killed by Nazi devoting Ukrainians. There was no way to prevent that but by other than military means. On February 22 Russia recognized the Donbas republics as independent states and signed defense agreements with them. The same day the German chancellor Olaf Scholz canceled the launch of the undersea Nord Stream II pipeline which was to transport Russian gas to Germany’s industries and consumers. The Europeans launched a sequence of extremely harsh economic sanctions against Russia which, prodded by the U.S., had been prepared months in advance. Russia’s Special Military Operation, under Article 51 of the UN Charter, commenced on February 24.

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“Without that we won’t even talk to them. Nobody is going to tolerate humiliation..”

West Should Treat Us With Respect – Putin (RT)

Russia and Belarus are countries that are prepared to work with the West but only if there is mutual respect, presidents Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko agreed during a face-to-face meeting in Sochi on Monday. Speaking on tv channel Rossiya 24, Lukashenko said he believes the West’s future lies with Russia, which has “everything they need.” On the other hand, he added, the West has things Russia and Belarus need and are willing to buy, including certain technologies. “What else do they want? They just need to make responsible decisions,” he said said. Putin agreed with the Belarusian leader, insisting the West must “treat us with respect.”

“Without that we won’t even talk to them. Nobody is going to tolerate humiliation,”Lukashenko continued, noting that both Moscow and Minsk were open to working with those who want to live side by side, building relations based on mutual respect. The Russian leader has previously suggested that the West was essentially waging a hybrid war against Moscow and was looking to “weaken, disunite and ultimately destroy”Russia. In a televised address last week, Putin claimed that Western countries openly admit that they “managed to break up the Soviet Union in 1991”and were now aiming to “split Russia into many regions that would be at each other’s throats.”


As a means to that end, Putin claims the West has been intentionally fostering Russophobic sentiments in countries like Ukraine, where he accuses the US and its allies of installing a hostile government and of turning the Ukrainian people into cannon fodder by pushing them into war with Russia. Putin has also warned Western leaders who openly call for a military defeat of Russia that Moscow is prepared to use any means at its disposal to defend itself and to ensure its territorial integrity. US President Joe Biden has hit back at Putin, accusing him of “making irresponsible nuclear threats to use nuclear weapons.”

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“..the president’s remarks were not an attempt to interfere with Italian domestic politics but rather meant to underline the body’s role “as guardian of the [European] treaties with regard to the rule of law.”

Poland Slams ‘Scandalous’ Von der Leyen Warning (RT)

A warning by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Brussels has tools to discipline Italy if its prospective center-right government fails to cooperate with the EU was “scandalous,” according to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The remark was a wake-up call for member states, the head of the Polish government said on Sunday, as quoted by state news agency PAP. “Is this the kind of Europe we want? Is this democracy and rule of law? That Eurocrats in Brussels decide what a government should be?”Morawiecki asked. He was responding to von der Leyen’s suggestion that, should the new Italian government fail to meet the EU’s policy expectations, the country could be disciplined.

The top official said “whatever democratic government is willing to work with us, we’re working together,” adding that “if things go in a difficult direction, I’ve spoken about Hungary and Poland, we have tools.” Von der Leyen spoke about Italy on Thursday at Princeton University, after it was suggested that people friendly to Russia could come to power in Rome after the election on Sunday. She was asked what the EU leadership plans to do about it. Morawiecki interpreted the remark as a promise to punish Italy, unless its new government is “in favor of Brussels.” European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said that the president’s remarks were not an attempt to interfere with Italian domestic politics but rather meant to underline the body’s role “as guardian of the [European] treaties with regard to the rule of law.”


A center-right coalition led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FI) party looks set to form a new cabinet following a snap election in the country. The outcome was consistent with opinion polls ahead of the ballot. In mid-September, the European Commission recommended suspending some €7.5 billion of emergency funding to Hungary over alleged erosion of the rule of law in the country. A similar punishment was imposed on Poland last year over controversial judicial reforms adopted by its conservative government.

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“..if – God forbid! – the Kremlin will face what the Russian military doctrine calls “a threat to the existence of the Russian Federation,” its nuclear weapons will not point to some location on the European continent, but more likely across the Atlantic.”

Russia And The US Still Have Time To Prevent A Nuclear War (Trenin)

This October marks the 60th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, which drew Moscow and Washington into a nuclear showdown that threatened the immediate annihilation of the world. Luckily, the leaders of the time – Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy – had the wisdom to step back from the brink, and then engage with each other on first steps toward jointly managing adversity in the nuclear era. Given the current conflict in Ukraine, which is steadily escalating toward a direct military collision between Russia and the United States, there is a hope that the lessons of the past can also help to end the present confrontation on a peaceful note. However, we should also be mindful of the major differences between the two crises.

On the surface the root cause of both confrontations has been acute feelings of insecurity created by the expansion of the rival power’s political influence and military presence right to the doorstep of one’s own country: Cuba then, Ukraine now. This similarity, however, is almost as far as it goes. The salient feature of the Ukraine crisis is the vast asymmetry not only between the relevant capabilities of Russia and the United States, but even more importantly between the stakes involved. To the Kremlin, the issue is literally existential. Essentially, it is not only the future of Ukraine, but that of Russia itself that is on the table. To the White House, the issue is definitely important, but far less critical. What is in question is clearly US global leadership (which will not collapse within the Western world, whatever happens in Ukraine), its credibility (which can be dented but hardly destroyed), and the administration’s standing with the American people (for whom Ukraine is hardly a top concern).

[..] The problem is that its highly pro-active policy on Ukraine is based on a flawed premise that Russia can indeed accept being ‘strategically defeated’ and, should nuclear weapons be used, their use would be limited to Ukraine or, at worst, to Europe. Americans have a long tradition of ascribing their own strategic logic to their Russian opponents, but this can be fatally misleading. Ukraine, parts of Russia and Europe being hit by nuclear strikes – while the US emerges from the conflict unscathed – might be considered a tolerable outcome in Washington, but hardly in Moscow. [..] So many of Russia’s so-called red lines being breached without consequence from the start of the Ukraine war have created an impression that Moscow is bluffing, so that when President Vladimir Putin recently issued another warning to Washington, saying that “it is not a bluff,” some people concluded that it was precisely that.

Yet, as recent experience demonstrates, Putin’s words deserve to be taken more seriously. In a 2018 interview he said, “Why do we need a world in which there is no Russia?” The problem is that Moscow’s strategic defeat, which the US is aiming for in Ukraine, would probably ultimately result in “a world without Russia.” This probably suggests that if – God forbid! – the Kremlin will face what the Russian military doctrine calls “a threat to the existence of the Russian Federation,” its nuclear weapons will not point to some location on the European continent, but more likely across the Atlantic.

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“Hungary to hold a referendum on the EU’s sanctions imposed on Russia, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announces.

“The sanctions were not decided democratically, but were decided by Brussels bureaucrats and European elites,” he said on Monday.”

Orban Says EU Sanctions on Russia Have ‘Backfired’ (R.)

Hungary should prepare for a prolonged war in neighbouring Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday, sharply criticising European Union sanctions imposed on Russia which he said have “backfired”, driving up energy prices. Orban, long at odds with the EU over some of his policies seen in Brussels as anti-democratic, urged a ceasefire to end the war and said the sanctions against Russia were dealing a blow to Europe’s economy. Orban, who was reelected for a fourth consecutive term in April, now faces surging inflation, plunging consumer confidence and the prospect of a recession next year.

He told parliament it was no surprise that governments were falling in Europe, referring to the Italian election on Sunday following which Giorgia Meloni looks set to lead Italy’s most right-wing government since World War Two. “We can safely say that as a result of the sanctions, European people have become poorer, while Russia has not fallen to its knees,” Orban said. “This weapon has backfired, with the sanctions Europe has shot itself in the foot.” “We are waiting for an answer, the entire Europe is waiting for an answer from Brussels on how long we will keep doing this,” he said, adding it was also time to discuss the sanctions with the United States. Orban, whose government is in talks with the European Commission to secure billions of euros in EU funds blocked over rule-of-law concerns, said his government would launch a “national consultation” asking Hungarians about sanctions.


Orban has previously used this campaign tool to shore up domestic support for his Fidesz party on policies such as gay rights or migration. Orban said his government had revised its long-term energy strategy and aims to overhaul the power system and extend the lifespan of the Paks nuclear power plant, with a total of 32 big investments planned to be financed using EU funding. “If the Brussels bureaucrats do not give us this money, which Hungary is eligible for, then we will get the necessary funds from other financial sources,” Orban said, adding Hungary had started talks with the EU and “other international partners”. He did not elaborate.

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“Dozens of nations representing half of humanity either backed Russia’s position on Ukraine or at least acknowledged the merits of Russia’s reasoning..”

Moscow Tells US To ‘Back Off’ With ‘Aggressive’ Course (RT)

The US is taking an increasingly aggressive stance towards Moscow, but no amount of economic sanctions and political pressure can sway it from defending its national interests, a top Russian diplomat said. Moscow’s diplomacy regarding the US is an exercise in “crisis management”, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview on Russian television on Monday. He described US behavior as being “increasingly confrontational and worrisome.” “We can see how [the Americans] are trying to mobilize their satellites, their vassals to confront Russia in a more aggressive and hardline manner,” the diplomat said. “Washington’s irresponsible, extremely aggressive, extremely assertive course is bringing us all to the dangerous line. We are warning against maintaining this course.”

The brinkmanship has been evident not only when it comes to the crisis in Ukraine, but also in the all-important issue of nuclear non-proliferation and reduction, Ryabkov said. Washington has pretty much dismantled the entire architecture of strategic arms control and is threatening the last remaining bilateral treaty of that kind with Russia, the New START, he pointed out. The core of the problem, the diplomat said, is that the US “does not need agreements, which had been signed on the basis of parity, served not only the security interest of the group [of nations] led by the US, but strengthened the security of entire regions and the world in general. They are not in line with the hegemonic course that the US pursues in the international arena.”

The deputy minister said he didn’t expect US policy towards Russia to change anytime soon, because “there is an anti-Russian consensus of the elites” in the US. But the only viable solution is for Washington to recognize that Russia will not be bullied and act accordingly, Ryabkov added. “Time and time again we’ve told our American interlocutors, to use the most neutral term, that they have to back off and stop escalating the situation,” he said.

European nations, which sided with Washington’s anti-Russian drive, are suffering because of it, the Russian diplomat pointed out. In fact, their subservience to Washington makes them vulnerable to American exploitation, Ryabkov said. “[The Americans] are undermining Europe’s competitiveness, pumping their products into European markets, be they military equipment or hydrocarbons, which the Europeans would rather get from alternative sources under different circumstances,” he said. But Washington lacks global support, regardless of what American officials claim Ryabkov said. Dozens of nations representing half of humanity either backed Russia’s position on Ukraine or at least acknowledged the merits of Russia’s reasoning about it, he explained.

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One of 75, but the only one who gets attention.

Moscow Grants Russian Citizenship To Edward Snowden (AP)

President Vladimir Putin has granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. security contractor Edward Snowden, according to a decree signed by the Russian leader on Monday. Snowden is one of 75 foreign nationals listed by the decree as being granted Russian citizenship. The decree was published on an official government website. Snowden, a former contractor with the U.S. National Security Agency, has been living in Russia since 2013 to escape prosecution in the U.S. after leaking classified documents detailing government surveillance programs. He was granted permanent residency in 2020 and said at the time that he planned to apply for Russian citizenship, without renouncing his U.S. citizenship.


Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti that the former contractor’s wife Lindsay Mills, an American who has been living with him in Russia, will also be applying for a Russian passport. The couple had a child in December 2020. Snowden, who has kept a low profile in Russia and occasionally criticized Russian government policies on social media, said in 2019 that he was willing to return to the U.S. if he’s guaranteed a fair trial. He hasn’t commented on being granted Russian citizenship.

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“Just because NATO and the US get to “invade other sovereign countries at the drop of a hat, or for a few barrels of oil,” doesn’t mean Russia shouldn’t hold itself to a higher standard..”

Roger Waters Pens Open Letter To Putin (RT)

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has penned a blunt open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, seeking guarantees that Russia will not expand beyond the Donbass and Crimea and will never “invade anyone ever again.” Posted to Facebook on Monday, the missive follows similarly frank open letters to Ukrainian First Lady Elena Zelenskaya. In the letter, Waters asks Putin to affirm he wants an end to the war – something the Russian president has already said on other occasions. He also demands a guarantee that Russia’s “territorial interest” stops at the “security of the Russian speaking populations”of Crimea and the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, citing the need to reassure “some people who think you want to overrun the whole of Europe, starting with Poland and the rest of the Baltic states.”

If Russia does have territorial ambitions beyond eastern Ukraine, Waters writes, “f*** you, and we might as well all stop playing the desperately dangerous game of nuclear chicken that the hawks on both sides of the Atlantic feel so comfortable with, and have at it.” It wasn’t immediately clear if the referendums in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions on joining Russia qualified for this response. Moscow would also have to promise “not to invade anyone ever again,” Waters told Putin, complaining the launch of Russia’s special military operation in February was not just a “heinous war of aggression,” but an unexpected one to boot. Just because NATO and the US get to “invade other sovereign countries at the drop of a hat, or for a few barrels of oil,” doesn’t mean Russia shouldn’t hold itself to a higher standard, he explained.

“If you were to reply to me,” Waters wrote to Putin, “I would mightily respect you for it, and take it as an honorable move in the right direction towards a sustainable peace.” The progressive rock guitarist’s appeal to Putin followed his previous open letters to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s wife Elena, in which he urged the Ukrainian First Lady to “demand the implementation of your husband’s election promises and put an end to this deadly war,” a reference to Zelensky’s campaign pledge to “end the civil war” in Donbass. He told Zelenskaya she was “tragically mistaken” in her belief that western “support for Ukraine” – namely the continued supply of weapons – would shorten the conflict.

Zelenskaya responded to the musician earlier this month on Twitter, blaming Russia for “invading” Ukraine, “destroy[ing] cities and kill[ing] civilians.” She insisted that if Ukraine stops fighting it will mean the end of its existence, and urged Waters to address his peace appeals to the Russian president instead.

Read more …

Google translation from German outlet Morgenpost.

The “talks” between Ursula and Bourla were in WhatsApp (or a similar app), and she gave herself permission to delete all of it. Dead end.

Trouble About The Corona Vaccine Deal: Why Is Von Der Leyen Stonewalling? (MP)

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is under pressure because of a multi-billion dollar mega contract for the delivery of Biontech-Pfizer’s corona vaccine. According to information from our editorial team, the budget controllers of the EU Parliament are preparing a formal reprimand, the displeasure in Parliament is great, the first MPs call for the public prosecutor. It is by far the largest contract in the European Union for the procurement of corona vaccines: In May 2021, i.e. five months after the start of the vaccination campaign, the Commission agreed on the delivery of up to 1.8 billion doses of the Biontech/Pfizer vaccine ( 900 million as an option) for the years 2022 and 2023. According to insider information, the purchase price is a gigantic 35 billion euros.

Not only the volume is spectacular. It is also unusual that von der Leyen apparently personally arranged the contract in talks with Pfizer boss Albert Bourla – the European Court of Auditors speaks of “preliminary negotiations”. Nevertheless, the President of the Commission adamantly refuses to provide any information about her exchange with the Pfizer boss. Now von der Leyen even rebuffed the Court of Auditors – and may have overdone it. The auditors took an interest in the deal as part of a special report on European vaccine procurement. According to her account, von der Leyen conducted the preliminary negotiations with the Pfizer boss in March 2021 without involving the joint negotiating team, as would have corresponded to a Commission decision on the procedure.

The auditors asked the Commission for information about the preliminary negotiations, such as experts involved, timetable, records, details of the agreed terms. After all, this contract will “shape the EU’s vaccine portfolio until the end of 2023”. But the examiners received a rejection: “No information was transmitted,” they write. Internally, the inspectors are stunned: “This behavior is extremely unusual, something like this has never happened before,” says the authority. However, the Court of Auditors cannot enforce anything in this case. The EU Parliament has the lever in its hand. There threatens from the Leyen Trouble. The chair of the Budget Control Committee, Monika Hohlmeier (CSU), calls it “very worrying” that the Commission is refusing to give the Court of Auditors central information for evaluating the preliminary negotiations, especially because of their influence on the proper award procedure.

According to the Court of Auditors, the tender only contained what had previously been informally agreed, Hohlmeier told our editorial team: “The Committee on Budgetary Control will reprimand the Commission here and insist that information relevant to the audit must always be shared with the Court of Auditors without restrictions.” The lack of transparency in the multi-billion dollar contracts has long been an issue in the EU Parliament, also because it plays into the hands of anti-vaccination campaigns. Von der Leyen’s blockade is fueling all sorts of speculation among critics, such as an alleged preference for the US company Pfizer. The Washington-based consumer organization SumOfUs accuses von der Leyen of agreeing to a hefty price increase in her talks with Bourla, even though a discount would have been obvious given the enormous quantity. In fact, with the deal, the price per Biontech vaccine dose rose from EUR 15.50 to EUR 19.50 – the then Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borrisov revealed this out of annoyance at the high costs.

Read more …

It’s over.

Just 1.5% Of Eligible Americans Have Gotten Updated COVID Booster (ZH)

Only 1.5% of those eligible to receive the new Covid booster jab – which was tested on just 8 mice, not humans, before the FDA approved it – have taken the updated shot, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Approximately 4.4 million people have taken the tweaked booster shot from Pfizer and Moderna after they were rolled out three weeks ago around Labor Day weekend. The bivalent shots were designed to target both the original Covid-19 strain, and the currently circulating Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, NBC News reports. “I would expect a much higher proportion of Americans to have gotten the booster by this point,” said Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist, Dr. Scott Robers, who said the relatively low uptake was “demoralizing.”

“The fact that this booster came out days before Biden said the pandemic is over is a huge mixed message,” said Roberts, who added that a lack of public awareness surrounding the shots – or the ‘prevailing narrative that the pandemic is ending’ might have hindered the rollout. “Now it’s going to be that much harder to convince those at risk who are on the fence to get a booster.” As of Tuesday, the US had shipped over 25 million boosters to tens of thousands of sites. Approximately 80% of the US population has received at least one shot of the primary Covid vaccine, and almost 68% are considered ‘fully vaccinated’ by the CDC – meaning they’ve received two doses of Pfizer or Moderna’s offering, or one dose of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.


“[..] experts are still gathering real-world data, since the shots were distributed without results from human trials. Laboratory studies found that the boosters generated strong antibody responses against BA.4 and BA.5, and human trial data showed that a similar vaccine yielded a strong antibody response against the initial omicron strain, BA.1. Authorization of the bivalent boosters for children ages 5 to 11 may be just weeks away, Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said at an event this week with the Covid-19 Vaccine Education and Equity Project.” -NBC News Word of the slow uptake comes after Denmark recommended that only those over the age of 50, or who are at risk of developing severe Covid-19, receive the vaccine.

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Home Forums Debt Rattle September 27 2022

Viewing 35 posts - 41 through 75 (of 75 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #117019
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I hear much talk about Russian draft-dodgers, big queues at the borders, etc.

    I say that the thing to be concerned about is if a bunch if Euromerican bigwigs decide to have a sudden summit on a South Pacific Island… or have one conveniently planned for October, when the first really cold weather kicks in (WES can tell us about that).

    I would take that as evidence that a nuclear exchange might be direly imminent.

    But a nation calling a draft/calling up reserves amid a conflict everyone sees as the flashpoint for a genuine WWIII (in big bold CAPS), and many young men seeking to evade the prospects of going to war where it actually happens?

    Nothing remarkable here at all. No tea leaves to be read in that data other than to confirm what most of us already believe we know: Russia ain’t playing around.

    Sing It Vlad

    P.S. Internet here in West SLope neighborhood of Portland Oregon has been degrading since the early days of covidf and has since last week been virtually unusable for hours at a time except, of course, for mainstream propaganda/public mind-reading sites (including youtube).

    #117020
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    #117021
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @JohnDay

    Cui bono, and look at the strategic locations of the blasts, and ask why in all three locations the result was a massive but sustainable leak (VERY precise demolition required, difficult to accomplish ) rather than complete destruction of the whole pipe (relatively easy, just use a BIG explosive. Overkill it.) The sabotage did NOT stop or slow current delivery. How is Germany being attacked if current demand is being fully met ? (which it is.) German orders are being filled. Germany has always and still does have the ability to buy all the gas it wants. Hell, the valves are even ON German soil. All they have to do is place the order and pay in rubles.

    #117022
    Redneck
    Participant

    So Putin is going to nuke New York and Washington….Plleeeaase! This is a bloke who has had four shots of Astra Zeneca and believes in Jesus and heaven and does not have the balls to missile the fuck out of the coke heads in Kiev , but he has his finger on the nuclear button ready to smoke London , New York , Berlin , Paris , Washington etc.???????? He don’t have the balls or the capability to even thrash the Ukys on his doorstep for God’s sake.
    Regarding my statement that Putin’s SMO has failed , I take my lead from the Russian MSM talking heads themselves , right now they are panicking because there are severe doubts about the success of the mobilisation and the inability to equip the draftees. They themselves recognise what a fuckup the SMO is and how they underestimated the entire situation and are now in deep shit .The shelves of the Russian military are bare. Threatening nuclear strikes is the latest bluff but nobody is going to be intimidated by that BS.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt0AF3nN4G4

    #117023
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    “More than 96% voted in favour of joining the Russian Federation.”

    #117024
    zerosum
    Participant

    Did anybody yesterday news
    https://www.upstreamonline.com/production/gazprom-goodbye-europe-hello-china-and-asia/2-1-1304413
    Gazprom: Goodbye Europe, hello China and Asia
    Russian giant sees domestic and Asian markets as key alternatives to replace falling gas supplies to Europe
    22 September 2022 11:32 GMT UPDATED 22 September 2022 12:21 GMT
    By Vladimir Afanasiev

    #117025
    zerosum
    Participant

    Conveniently, Poland today inaugurated a new gas pipeline, called Baltic Pipe, from North Sea gas fields directly to its NW coast. An eye for an eye, pipe for a pipe… catch my drift?

    https://twitter.com/3SeasEurope/status/1573204981242527744/photo/1
    Poland has doubled the number of gas production licenses in Norway at 50% less than the original price. The gas will flow on October 1, 2022 through the newly built Baltic Pipe.

    Gazprom’s contract ends in 2022 and Poland does not intend to extend it.

    #117026
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @JohnDay regarding speculation on who blew up Nordstream

    I just encountered this from somewhere out on the Interwebs from a dude with the avatar handle of “Feldwebel Schultz” (cool handle, like Field Marshall, only sillier)

    “Feldwebel Schultz • 39 minutes ago
    I doubt it was the Russians as they control the tap.
    I doubt it was the EU as they need the gas.
    I doubt it was Ukraine, as they have their own problems.
    I wouldn’t put it past the US to do this.”

    The Feldwebel’s thoughts do have the twin virtues of simplicity and coherence. Sounds plausible to me.

    #117027
    John Day
    Participant

    @DBS: The Nordstream pipelines are shut down. I doubt that extensive repairs will be done by Russia or Germany without some kind of a fresh agreement, which would be a really good thing.

    A friend reminded my of a drone sub with explosives found near the pipeline (being constructed) in 2015.
    https://www.pipeline-journal.net/news/explosive-laden-drone-found-near-nord-stream-pipeline

    #117028
    zerosum
    Participant

    I assume that a dragnet would be able to get a lot of fish bubbling to the surface.
    🙂

    #117029
    zerosum
    Participant

    Cut & pasted
    Radek Sikorski MEP
    @radeksikorski
    Thank you, USA.

    Photo of gas leakage embedded in Tweet

    Radek Sikorski MEP

    @radeksikorski
    Chairman EU-USA delegation
    @Europarl_EN

    VP EU-UK Friendship Group
    Senior Fellow@HarvardCES
    Distinguished Statesman@CSIS
    biuro@radeksikorski.eu

    Posted by: Down South | Sep 27 2022 17:42 utc | 189

    #117030
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Russian pipelines are a victim of SADS and global warming, duh

    #117031
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @JohnDay “The Nordstream pipelines are shut down.”

    I concluded from the kilometer wide column of bubbles in the Baltic (which I stupidly called the North Sea in my previous comments) evidenced that Russia’s pumps were still running. I believe those pumps must keep running, despite the leak, in order to prevent pipeline collapse at the extreme depths where pipeline runs. I know that line pressure maintenance is high tech and quite complicated, and thereby WAY above my grade level, BUT, there IS a lot of gas leaking into the Baltic, and those bubbles DO belong to Russia, and that no one is paying for those bubbles except Russia, and that Russia losing money is high on the list of US/NATO/WEF/Cabal goals.

    We will soon see who dunnit, and I for one am VERY interested because it really really is a very very big deal at this stage of the WW3 that the Cabal seems so intent upon.

    Incidentally, now that we’re on the topic of nomenclature, do you find (as I do) that calling it WW3 shows a distinct paucity of creative imagination and branding skills?

    I think we should jazz it up a little, especially since this is gonna be the last time for a LONG time that humankind will be able to muster up enough energy to do war on a global basis. Let’s show a little panache!

    Lets call it Word War Last or something like that.

    #117032
    Michael Reid
    Participant
    #117033
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I think that the 27th is close enough to the 24th, and that deliberate sabotage of the last main energy source for many millions of people qualifies as a deployment of a Weapon of Mass Destruction.

    I think that this act demonstrates that the creeps-in-charge are raving bonkers. Enter plausible chance of thermonuclear activity.

    I believe that Putin has ample balls or courage or ruthless military logic to indeed push the nuclear button just as I also think it’s childishly fear-driven prattle to even suggest that it takes “balls” to make and act on such a decision. When one is existentially backed up against a wall, one either folds or finds courage. I don’t see Putin folding in that situation… or me for that matter.

    “The way Vladimir Putin tells it, one of his great teachers in life was a rat.

    “As a boy in Leningrad, he once chased a particularly fat one down the hallway of his apartment building. Cornered, the squealing creature turned on young Putin and tried to bite him. Terrified, the boy fled into his parents’ apartment, slamming the door in the rat’s face.

    “The lesson, Putin recalls, was clear: never put someone’s back against the wall”

    The Rat Story

    I don’t think that this pipeline sabotage itself will trigger such a response, but I’m certain that Russia’s readiness levels for its most advanced nuke/conventional boom-boom delivery systems are now elevated to its highest shrieking No-Vodka-on-the-Job alertness level.

    I think the nail-biting moment will be when Germany begs Russia to take it under protection or some such moment.

    “It was evening; the sky was filled with dragons — this time, yellow ones. The widow murmured a single sentence, “The vixen seeks the dragon’s wing,” as she stepped aboard the ship.”

    “The widow understood. She threw her two swords into the river, knelt in the bottom of a boat, and ordered that she be taken to the flagship of the emperor’s fleet.

    “The vixen seeks the dragon’s wing…”

    At such a moment I think it’s more likely that the emotional castrati who are in charge of USNATO will nuke their own as a false flag than it is for likely Putin to go trigger-happy. For Putin to pull that trigger would, I should think, require his opponents to perform acts that kill/maim many millions of his own people, or perhaps just millions of people, period. Either way, it plays well on the global stage, makes for good geopolitical optics along with the mushroom cloud, and a man with the “balls” to use nukes surely knows that good optics are crucial in a world where many nations have nukes. He needs to be seen as the Justified Good Guy if the world is to have a chance at nuclear peace during this transition from plenty to poverty. An honest-to-goodness goddam global policeman, even: the world is quite ready to be saved from the USA Empire.

    To prevail in a way that isn’t a Pyrrhic victory, Putin needs to have all the other nuclear nations at least stand aside (unless fired at, of course; no one’s going to accept a nuclear removal of a city). Let’s metaphorically say that if USNATO is a global cancer, we don’t want the chemo that kills it to kill the global patient as well.

    I think it’s gotten close to inevitable that we’ll see thermonuclear activity during this war. How much, how effectively used…???? No one’s going to let the bad guy, who is also the only nation to have used atomic bombs in war, get away with a nuclear 911 that isn’t on USA soil.

    Strategically, it rather makes sense for Putin to be poised to fire a bunch of hypersonic tactical nukes at key targets immediately if such an event happens. In a fight where one is compelled to wait for the other guy to throw the first punch, one is wise to be prepared to hit him at least half a dozen times before he’s even had a chance to pull his fist back — even if his first punch was to hit himself in the face.

    Not like any of us have a clue what’s happening, really. We just watch our magic screens and play 5-D chess with each other.

    Son of a Tokyo Rose…

    #117034
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    The methane in the pipeline is much lighter than water and is shipped under pressure as condensed liquid. I’m quite sure that the pumps shut off as soon as they felt the pressure drop and have stayed off since. It is just that a cylinder several feet wide in diameter and many miles long, contains a lot of pressurized liquid natural gas.

    #117035
    slimyalligator
    Participant

    @ Mr. House, Quite a bit to unpack from your dozen word comment. Hard to find Reynolds in the hood for my hat at this time. Vaccines induced mental decline among our betters and the proules? Grim.

    #117036
    Michael Reid
    Participant


    I think that the 27th is close enough to the 24th, and that deliberate sabotage of the last main energy source for many millions of people qualifies as a deployment of a Weapon of Mass Destruction.

    I agree.

    Western civilization imploding? Does everyone get a turn. I liked the Italian lady.

    #117037
    zerosum
    Participant

    Help is coming
    https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2022-09-12-a-mysterious-campaign-and-an-unknown-leadership—who-is-behind-the-syrian-%22convoy-of-light%22-in-turkey-.HySPDIZTej.htmlhttps://www.tellerreport.com/news/2022-09-12-a-mysterious-campaign-and-an-unknown-leadership—who-is-behind-the-syrian-%22convoy-of-light%22-in-turkey-.HySPDIZTej.html

    A mysterious campaign and an unknown leadership.. Who is behind the Syrian “convoy of light” in Turkey?
    9/12/2022, 12:19:59 PM

    An intense discussion has taken place on the communication platforms in Turkey over the past few days, following the emergence of a mysterious campaign via the Telegram application calling on Syrians to participate in a convoy dubbed “the convoy of light” with the aim of heading from Turkey to Europe.

    #117038
    Oroboros
    Participant

    If Nord Stream I & II were ruptured, and you saw gas bubbles over the surface of the Baltic, it’s simply the sea water displacing the residual gas in the pipeline, there are hundreds of miles of pipeline. The Russians were not pumping any gas under pressure and the valves were shut off quite a while ago.

    Once the gas in the actual pipelines has escaped and seawater has filled the entire length of both Nord Streams, there is no easy way to ever start either one up again with out fixing the breaches at depth (can’t be done with divers, too deep) and then getting the sea water out of both pipelines. A VERY challenging technical problem.

    For all purposes, the Empire of Lies has just declared WAR on Eurotardistan®.

    JoBomber overheard mumbling, ” Die Eurotardistan, Die!”

    Trying to blame Russia for killing their own pipelines is typical psychotic projection from the blood drinking monsters who have their fist up JoBomber’s ass.

    .

    #117039
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    CBDCs, SDRs, and the Re-Monetization of Gold… Here’s What Happens Next

    CBDCs, SDRs, and the Re-Monetization of Gold… Here’s What Happens Next

    #117040
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Energinet plans to commission Baltic Pipe with partial capacity from 1 October 2022, by using parts of the existing gas transmission system in Denmark as temporary replacement for the parts that have been delayed. The entire project is expected to be operational at full annual capacity of up to 10 BCM by 1 January 2023.”

    ***

    “In 2019, the twenty-seven EU members’ total demand for natural gas peaked at 390 billion cubic meters (bcm). Because of the strong EU climate policy, it is unlikely to reach that level again. In 2019, Russian gas supplies to the twenty-seven EU members also peaked at 168 bcm, or 43 percent of total EU natural-gas consumption. In 2021, the anticipated Russian natural-gas exports to the EU amount to 135 bcm and are expected to decline gradually to 120 bcm a year by 2030.1 The decline is not likely to be precipitous because Central Europe will replace some coal with gas, and Germany some nuclear power with gas, but no increase is expected.

    “Out of a maximum annual Russian gas supply of 135 bcm, 110 bcm—81 percent—could pass through the two Nord Stream pipelines. ”

    10bcm is hardly enough to replace the 135 BCM Russia used to provide the EU with.

    Poland would be nuts to sabotage Nord Stream on its own, especially a Russian pipeline. But then, I hear Poland is kinda nuts these days, so maybe so. But it sure smells like USA Empire is behind this.

    Old School

    Older School

    #117041
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    As for 100ks of Russians fleeing, consider this:

    russia has migrant workers

    Russia has an estimated 14 million migrant workers.

    100k here or there is a piffle.

    #117042
    chettt
    Participant

    I don’t think people realize just how badly the west treated the Russian citizens after the invasion and how this treatment affected the Russian people. Banning anyone with a Russian name from competing in athlete competitions. World famous Russian composers, Russian performers, Russian artist of all types and stripes were treated with scorn and ridicule just for being Russian. Hell, they even renamed a Russian painting!

    When the invasion started it was a surprise and anything but popular with the Russian people. The last thing most wanted was a war and had the collective west made some distinction between the Russian government and the Russian people I suspect thing might have progressed differently but we’ll never know. The intense Russophobia coming from the western media and the incredible level of western imposed sanctions designed to cripple all of Russia, the Russian people were overwhelmed by all that hate, realized what the west really thought of them and rallied around their leader and motherland.

    Well the genie’s out of the bottle and win, lose or draw we’re at a turning point and the world will never be the same.

    I would not expect any kind of coup or mass uprising in Russia anytime soon.

    #117043
    John Day
    Participant

    DBS mused:
    “Incidentally, now that we’re on the topic of nomenclature, do you find (as I do) that calling it WW3 shows a distinct paucity of creative imagination and branding skills?
    I think we should jazz it up a little, especially since this is gonna be the last time for a LONG time that humankind will be able to muster up enough energy to do war on a global basis. Let’s show a little panache!
    Lets call it Word War Last or something like that.”

    I’ve thought about nomenclature for years. Some people consider the cold war to be WW-3, and the GWOT to be WW-4, so this would be WW-5, but nobody would get what you mean.
    I think there is a good case for calling it WW-3, since WW-1 and WW-2 really were resets of global trade and financial relationships, and that’s where we are again.
    I’ve got nothing better than “WW-3”. “The Global War on All-Y’all”?

    Thanks for the re-monetization of gold, not CBDCs article, Michael Reid. (Have to try everything else first?)


    @Boscohorowitz
    : I read about the pirate-widow Ching. Engaging story. I would not want to be one of the slaughtered, but they did have a code-of-law, too. Tough times those were.

    What’s Vlad to do? People propose to know his character and motives a lot.
    TAE Summary did a good job with the two narrative-groupings, pro and anti.
    Let’s just consider him rational, intelligent, and with a very long historic view.
    He’d be dead, otherwise. I think you concur.

    Putin and Lavrov have spent this new millennium keeping their deals. Putin is a lawyer.
    This is a really long term investment. Russian diplomacy is the most highly regarded, I think.
    Lavrov looked pretty tense at his recent UN press conference, and circuitously avoided answering some straightforward questions. That’s showing stress for him. He’s usually got more flair.

    It looks to me like waiting to be attacked is what Russia is mostly doing. I know you addressed this recently. Impatient people can’t do this, and can’t really think of it as an option, but it’s big in Russian history. Russia can be augmenting the military to open up options, including never having to pull that trigger, which is an excellent option. (“Speak softly and carry a big stick” , T.R.)

    It looks to me like the US just attacked German people and German industry. Germans can see this, right? Everybody who is capable of useful analysis can see this. Germany was starting to turn towards Russia before winter, so the US burned Germany’s winter-grain silo and said, “who you gonna’ believe, me or your lying eyes?”
    Russia doesn’t have to do a lot, except to facilitate selling gas to Germany by any means which remains possible. Russia just has to play the straight-guy.

    There may have been some big event that did not just happen. The US says they have been threatening Russia through back channels, should Russia use a nuke. We can presume that the Russians understand that this is a threat to do a false-flag nuke attack, blame it on Russia, and then slaughter-some-folks somehow. Russia might have also given some back-channel messages, which dissuaded the neocons from that course.
    I speculate, but it’s unavoidable lately.

    I think of the time that Trump got 3 options for attacking Syria and chose the cruise missiles against the military airbase, which mostly got intercepted. It was a place-holder attack, not a real attack.
    If the empire was going to go nuclear-false-flag, but decided to just destroy Nordstream, instead, and if the major players all knew that, then it is a great loss of face in the halls of power.

    I like speculating. I can go on and on.

    The only way to get Germany a lot of Russian gas this winter is for Germany and Russia to decide to cooperate on major-problem-solving, and it will need to be open cooperation.
    Hungary could potentially help. (Ukraine signing a deal would help. Breaking up Ukraine and giving some to Poland would sweeten that deal. All that seems like years off, though.)

    I really think that the US (or proxy) blowing up the pipelines shows cowardice and weakness. It shows that the US was losing German cooperation.
    Watch Japan, now.

    #117044
    John Day
    Participant

    About those back-channel communications regarding nuclear war and stuff:

    Russia Says It’s Had ‘Sporadic’ Contacts With the US on Nuclear Weapons

    #117045
    chettt
    Participant

    I’ve always had trouble understanding the initial Russian invasion of Ukraine. Columns of tanks hard driving straight to Kiev but very little fighting? And then after a month or so they leave as quickly as they arrived. Massive artillery in the east but few troops and massive professional troops in the south with little artillery or air support.

    I recently ran across this article that made good sense to me. It might have been posted here before and if so I apologize. This article originally appeared in the Marine Corps Gazette August 2022 issue. Authored by an apparently frequent anonymous contributor (“Marinus”) to the Gazette, it has since raised quite a ruckus among the United States military community in various online debates.

    “A Former US Marine Corps Officer’s Analysis of the Ukraine War”
    https://www.imetatronink.com/2022/08/a-former-us-marine-corps-officers.html

    #117046
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    chettt #117042

    I don’t think people realize just how badly the west treated the Russian citizens after the invasion and how this treatment affected the Russian people. Banning anyone with a Russian name from competing in athlete competitions. World famous Russian composers, Russian performers, Russian artist of all types and stripes were treated with scorn and ridicule just for being Russian. Hell, they even renamed a Russian painting!

    Excellent post and spot on, IMO…

    #117047
    Redneck
    Participant

    I was in Laos in 1974. The US embassy in Vientiane had a pool and burgers. My hotel had four retired Les Girls trannys from Bangkok living there , they were heroin addicts , interesting characters. The street my hotel was in had night stalls where you could get French bread , wine and fries as well as weed and smack. Each stall had a massive bong fixed to a stand that was so big you had to stand to smoke it.Buddha sticks were ten cents each , the heroin was the Eagle and Globe brand , very pure and cheap , lots of junkies from all over the world. We had quite a bit of acid as well. We went up to Luang Prabang through the triangle in the back of a pickup , our heads wrapped with scarves to hide our whiteness. There was two guards with automatic weapons and we drove like hell. The US embassy had reports of whiteys being shot and one public bus had a hand grenade thrown into it killing two hippies so we took a different transport. Luang Prabang was super cool , there was only one opium den that would allow foreigners , the pipes were made by women , I never saw women doing the pipes in any other dens.Lots of big fifty cal I guess gun dugouts everywhere and we would be held at gunpoint and asked our nationality , any country was good except for the US , they didn’t seem to worry that we were Australians and that we had fought in Nam , in fact the final withdrawal had still not happened at that point I think.The locals were very friendly and cool except for those in uniform with guns, I never did find out exactly who they were , when you are young and bulletproof it don’t matter. There was a full moon when we were there and the Lao had big party and danced all night drinking drinking copious Mekong whisky and bonging on . Up in the triangle the Mao hill tribes people were growing poppies as far as you could see. The women did the work and each one carried a bong on their back not necessarily for smoking pot , they smoked tobacco that way too. Afterwards we bought a bag of sticks and took them back to Bali where a ten cent stick sold for five dollars US. Interesting times. Our hotel had Buddha sticks for sale in the basement , there were one cubic meter bales, the restaurant had them in a container at the bar , just help yourself and pop a donation in the Jar. Hippy heaven in a war zone.

    #117048
    John Day
    Participant

    @Chett: That USMC Ret. analysis of Russian tactics did make the rounds here last month, and is good, and I read it again.


    @Redneck
    : I was going to high school in Yokohama, Japan in 1974. “Buddha” stick was much more expensive in Yokohama.

    #117049
    zerosum
    Participant

    @ chettt
    THANKS
    Our leaders know and have advisers that know, but they don’t want us to know

    Thursday, August 18, 2022
    “A Former US Marine Corps Officer’s Analysis of the Ukraine War”
    https://www.imetatronink.com/2022/08/a-former-us-marine-corps-officers.html
    ———–
    Thursday, September 1, 2022
    The Moment of Greatest Danger
    Russia will fully achieve the three objectives of its “special military operation” as explicitly stated by Vladimir Putin in his address to the world delivered on the opening day of the war: liberating the Donbass; excising the Nazi influence from the region, and demilitarizing Ukraine.

    All I know is that the moment of greatest danger in all our lives is now bearing down upon us. At some point – likely sooner than later – those who wield the power and control the levers of empire will make a move to preserve its dominion.

    I am personally convinced they will fail – and abysmally so – but almost certainly not without leaving oceans of blood and mountains of ashes in their wake.

    Prepare yourselves accordingly …

    #117050
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    For me, the primary speculation point is about just how insanely irrational the USA Imperial Command is at this point. COmpared to that, the rest is pretty well known.

    #117051
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Speculation closure: or it may be smartest for Vlad just to watch the Empire destroy itself and blame Russia. That seems the obvious no-brainer logical choice but it doesn’t sit with my gut. Rabid dogs don’t tasme of their own. They have to be put out of their misery.

    #117052
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    “The War on Germany Just Entered Its Hot Phase” post on NC has been taken down. Probably because it no longer can be denied that WWIII has started. For the reasons below, whoever wanted a world war, got it.

    The global free movement of goods, people, services and capital was imposed upon the old nation-state structures which were then privatized and dismantled to reduce taxes and to aid in the exploitation of humans and resources. But the Coronavirus Pandemic and then the Russian invasion of Ukraine, forced globalism into a tailspin.

    Russia would never destroy its own paid for energy infrastructure, potential cash cow, and leverage over Germany; likewise, neither would any nation connected the Nord Stream distribution pipelines. US fracking companies and petroleum giants like Exxon Mobile may profit in the short term, but even the stupidest CEO in the world must realize that once their pipelines become targets of opportunity, they are out of business.

    The only state actors that may be involved are Ukraine and the United Kingdom together. This operation in three different spots blowing up the pipelines buried deep in sea mud is too complex and sensitive of an operation, right next to Denmark, undetected, for non-state actors or mercenaries. A Blob Evangelical/Diaspora faction may have teamed up with culprits, but I just can’t believe the Pentagon, itself, would have sent this scheme up the chain of command to the White House for sign-off. If the CIA did warn Germany of the possibility of sabotage, it wasn’t them. Once Russia finds out who did it and they are not on their nuclear weapons target list, they will be added.

    The Hounds of War have been unleashed. One more dog has bit the dust. Unless an armistice is signed and a DMZ built, and everyone works together to survive this winter’s dark and cold, an atomic apocalypse is next. I hope I am wrong. But whoever thought of this operation and executed it is so dangerous and psychotic that they are willing kill billions to reach their goals.

    #117053
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    September 28, 2022 at 4:39 am #117052
    VietnamVet

    The Hounds of War have been unleashed. One more dog has bit the dust. Unless an armistice is signed and a DMZ built, and everyone works together to survive this winter’s dark and cold, an atomic apocalypse is next. I hope I am wrong. But whoever thought of this operation and executed it is so dangerous and psychotic that they are willing kill billions to reach their goals.

    Yes indeed, unleashed to….?
    Just when I think it cannot get crazier; it progresses to full blown psychosis…
    The assholes in charge won’t be happy until they start the nukes flying…the U.S. will lose badly and may cease to exist altogether…

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