Oct 132022
 
 October 13, 2022  Posted by at 8:10 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Paul Gauguin Sunken lane 1884

 

Putin ‘Totally Miscalculated’ Russia’s Ability To Occupy Ukraine – Biden (G.)
Some of Us Don’t Think the Russian Invasion Was “Aggression” (Mike Whitney)
NATO Planned A Pre-emptive Strike On Russia (Milacic)
Europe: Lack Of Russian Oil Could Spark ‘Worst Energy Crisis In Decades’ (ZH)
Energy Crisis In Europe Will Last For Years – Hungary (RT)
Orbán: With Merkel, We Wouldn’t Have A War (EURActiv)
Putin Says Russia Ready To Send Natural Gas To Europe Via Nord Stream 2 (OP)
Leak Found In Key Russian Oil Pipeline To Germany – Polish Operator (RT)
Russia Names Chief Suspect In Crimea Bridge Attack (RT)
Putin Ponders EU’s Energy Future (RT)
American Gas ‘Inferior’ To Russia’s – Putin (RT)
1962: Cool Heads Prevented A Soviet-US Naval Encounter Sparking A Nuclear War (RT)
Saudi Arabia Unveils Biden Oil Demand (RT)
NATO Eyes 10-Year Plan For Ukraine – Politico (RT)
$1m Offer To Steele Shows FBI Misled Congress On Russia Probe: Kash Patel (JTN)
Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Turns Negative Within Months (ET)
Europe’s Pension Funds Are Gambling With Food Prices (EUO)
‘They Are Stealing Russia’ (Adam Curtis)

 

 

 

 

Kolakusic
https://twitter.com/i/status/1580132343758540800

 

 

 

 

Stop the Spread

Tulsi Joe Rogan

 

 

Tell me again: how did we get here?

 

 

 

 

Don’t know where Biden’s handlers get this stuff, but it’s nonsense. Or do they just want to make Putin look as stupid as Biden? Russia knew exactly what was going on nextdoor. On the same page as this article, the Guardian has a link to:

“Would Lukashenko really throw Belarus into a war Russia is losing?”

Says it all. Sad thing is, their readers believe this crap.

Putin ‘Totally Miscalculated’ Russia’s Ability To Occupy Ukraine – Biden (G.)

Joe Biden has said he believes Vladimir Putin is a “rational actor” who badly misjudged his prospects of occupying Ukraine, but does not believe he would resort to using a tactical nuclear weapon. The US president told CNN on Tuesday that he believed his Russian counterpart had underestimated the ferocity of Ukrainian defiance in the face of invasion. “I think … he thought he was going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was the home of Mother Russia in Kyiv, and that where he was going to be welcomed, and I think he just totally miscalculated,” Biden said. “I think he is a rational actor who has miscalculated significantly.” When asked by interviewer Jake Tapper how realistic he believed it would be for Putin to use a tactical nuclear weapon, Biden responded: “Well, I don’t think he will.”


Biden’s comments came as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, accused Russia of launching a “second wave of terrorist attacks” in the wake of the blast that engulfed Crimea’s Kerch bridge. Zelenskiy said in a video address that 20 of 28 missiles launched by Russia on Tuesday were shot down, as well as “most” of the 15 combat drones deployed. In smaller gains in announced by Ukraine’s Operational Command early on Wednesday, the army destroyed Russian equipment and an ammunition depot along Ukraine’s southern line. At least 23 Russian soldiers were killed, it said. Earlier, Zelesnkiy asked G7 leaders for more air defence systems and a monitoring mission on the Belarusian border, as Russia continued to attack key infrastructure in Ukraine with fresh missile strikes.

Biden 2016

Read more …

“They’re openly arming, training, funding, and directing Ukrainian troops to prosecute a war aimed at killing Russian soldiers and removing Putin from power.”

Some of Us Don’t Think the Russian Invasion Was “Aggression” (Mike Whitney)

Imagine if the Mexican army started bombarding American ex-pats living in Mexico with heavy artillery-rounds killing thousands and leaving thousands more wounded. What do you think Joe Biden would do? Would he brush it off like a big nothingburger and move on or would he threaten the Mexican government with a military invasion that would obliterate the Mexican Army, level their biggest cities, and send the government running for cover? Which of these two options do you think Biden would choose? There’s no doubt what Biden would do nor is there any question what the 45 presidents who preceded him would do. No US leader would ever stand by and do nothing while thousands of Americans were savagely slaughtered by a foreign government. That just wouldn’t happen. They’d all respond quickly and forcefully.

But if that’s true, then why isn’t the same standard applied to Russia? Isn’t the situation in Ukraine nearly identical? It is nearly identical, only the situation in Ukraine is worse, much worse. And if we stretch our analogy a bit, you’ll see why: Let’s say, the US Intelligence agencies discovered that the Mexican government was not acting alone, but was being directed to kill and maim American ex-pats on orders from the Chinese Communist government in Beijing. Can you imagine that? And the reason the Chinese government wants to kill Americans in Mexico is because they want to lure the US into a long and costly war that will “weaken” the US and pave way for its ultimate splintering into many pieces that China can control and exploit. Does any of this sound familiar? (Check out the Rand Strategy for weakening Russia here)

So, let’s say, the Chinese are actually the driving force behind the war in Mexico. Let’s say, they toppled the Mexican government years earlier and installed their own puppet regime to do their bidding. Then they armed and trained vast numbers of troops to fight the Americans. They supplied these warriors with cutting-edge weapons and technology, logistical support, satellite and communications assistance, tanks, armored vehicles, anti-ship missiles, and state-of-the-art artillery units all of which were provided with one goal in mind; to crush America in a proxy war that was concocted, controlled and micro-managed from the Chinese Capital of Beijing. Is such a scenario possible?

It is possible, in fact, this very same scenario is playing out right now in the Ukraine, only the perpetrator of the hostilities is the United States not China, and the target of this malign strategy is Russia not the US. Surprisingly, the Biden administration isn’t even trying to hide what they’re up-to anymore. They’re openly arming, training, funding, and directing Ukrainian troops to prosecute a war aimed at killing Russian soldiers and removing Putin from power. That’s the objective and everyone knows it.

Read more …

“..the Third World War was prevented only thanks to the Russian special operation in Ukraine.”

NATO Planned A Pre-emptive Strike On Russia (Milacic)

One of the largest French maritime exercises in the Mediterranean, POLARIS 21 (Préparation Opérationnelle en Lutte Aéromaritime, Résilience, Innovation et Supériorité), took place from November 18 to December 3, 2021 in the area west of the island of Corsica, between France and Spain. The exercise also included a segment on the Atlantic coast of mainland France. POLARIS 21 was set up entirely in the context of operational preparation on several fronts and had a high combat intensity, which was fully in line with the strategic vision of the Chief of the Armed Forces and the Mercator Acceleration 21 plan of the Chief of Staff of the Admiral of the French navy Pierre Vandier. In addition to naval warfare, the exercise also included the participation of many combat aircraft and surface-to-air defense.

[..] journalists came into possession of data related to the exercise POLARIS 2021. The data speak clearly about the advance preparation of the NATO to enter into an armed conflict with the Russian Federation in the event of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. According to the legend of the maneuvers, it was determined that in response to the alleged Russian intervention, the forces of the NATO coalition would form and send an aircraft carrier strike group led by the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to the combat area in order to “stop the invasion and preserve the sovereignty of Ukraine.” The context and scenario of the “exercise“ (the consonance of the names of countries, settlements, the names of political figures, the specifics of maneuvers, etc.) became for the Russian Federation a signal of the real preparation of NATO to the start of hostilities against Russia, as it happened similarly to the operation of the United Defender alliance grouping of forces before the intervention in Libya (the exercises Baltops-2010 and Frisian Flag-2010), when, after the maneuvers at the sea ranges, a full-scale operation followed to overthrow of the legitimate government of Muammar Gaddafi.


POLARIS 2021 was also a demonstration of NATO support to Kyiv in the event of an armed conflict with Russia and was supposed to push Kyiv to start hostilities with the Russian Federation, after which the intervention of the NATO was supposed. In principle, NATO was looking for an excuse to attack Russia, with the factor of surprise, so that Russia would not be ready for an adequate response. In this situation, the preventive start of the Special Military Operation of the RF Armed Forces in Ukraine became the only possible response to the inevitable aggression of the Kyiv regime and the NATO. There is no doubt that thanks to the Russian special operation in Ukraine and the fact that Russia launched a preventive strike, it was NATO that was surprised but also scared by the Russian determination to defend its interests. It is precisely this fact that is responsible for why there was not and will not be conflict between Russia and NATO, that is, the Third World War was prevented only thanks to the Russian special operation in Ukraine.

Read more …

“A European ban on most crude imports from Russia will come into effect in December..”

Europe: Lack Of Russian Oil Could Spark ‘Worst Energy Crisis In Decades’ (ZH)

A European ban on most crude imports from Russia will come into effect in December. For EU leaders, the next task at hand has been finding new sources of crude oil ahead of what could be a very dark and cold winter. The move by EU countries to endlessly sanction Russia for President Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine by halting crude oil imports later this year is an attempt to “make the Kremlin pay” for the invasion, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently said. Though it’s only backfired as the Kremlin’s war chest has swelled by tens of billions of dollars as energy prices hyperinflate and new buyers are found in Asia. EU leaders have stepped up efforts to transition from Russian energy to other energy-rich countries, though they might find it challenging to increase energy imports due to limited spare capacity worldwide.

Monica Malik, the chief economist at the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, told the audience at an energy security panel hosted by the Institute of International Finance in Washington, DC, on Monday that the Gulf states, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, won’t be able to increase production to replace Russian oil in Europe. After all, the world is moving into a much tighter oil market for the remainder of the year after OPEC+ cuts. This could unintentionally spur a supercycle in pricing as brent crude inches closer to $100 a barrel. So where will Europe source crude this winter if spare capacity worldwide is limited? Head of European Oil for Morgan Stanley Martijn Rats wrote in a recent note:

“The oil market is where it is because this question is so hard to answer. If we knew, we could all breathe a little easier.” Without spare capacity — EU leaders will find it challenging to source crude around the world because production cannot be quickly ramped up. Helima Croft, managing director at RBC Capital Markets LLC, warned, “I think we are facing the worst energy crisis in decades.”= Croft fears a populist backlash in Europe as sanctions against Russia has sparked a cost-of-living crisis. This could force some EU governments to focus on affordability. She said the probability of the US making deals with Venezuela or Iran to offset the energy crunch is unlikely. One top EU diplomat admitted: “Our prosperity has been based on cheap energy coming from Russia.”

Read more …

“..the sanctions “didn’t fulfill the hopes that were pinned on them,” while Europe is “slowly bleeding.”

Energy Crisis In Europe Will Last For Years – Hungary (RT)

The ongoing energy crisis in Europe is set to be a long one and will extend to 2023 and 2024, and possibly beyond, warned Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, following a meeting of EU energy ministers on Wednesday. “We are now seeing the first global energy crisis in history, and it is long-term,” proclaimed Szijjarto, explaining that the crisis is being fueled by underlying “structural geopolitical reasons tied to security,” which require “long-term solutions.” The diplomat noted that “international institutions which still retain a small amount of common sense” also warn that this is a long-term crisis and a problem which will exist “not just this winter, but the next one and the one after that as well.”

Szijjarto also mentioned that Hungary’s own energy supply has been secured, after the country reached an agreement with Russia and has been receiving gas through the TurkStream pipeline without interruption. “That is why the Hungarian government pays special attention to ensuring the physical and legal functioning of the Turkish Stream, as this is a fundamental interest of our national security,” he said, noting that Hungarian gas storage facilities are filled at 48.2% of annual consumption, while the average fill level for Europe is currently at 26.9%.

Hungary receives around 80% of its gas from Russia’s gas giant Gazprom. While Russia has cut off gas supplies to a number of countries, Hungary signed a deal with Moscow in late August for additional deliveries on top of already-agreed volumes. Hungarian President Viktor Orban had previously accused the EU leadership of sparking the ongoing energy crisis by introducing “counterproductive” sanctions on Russian energy over Moscow’s ongoing military campaign in Ukraine. Budapest has repeatedly called for “the failed policy of Brussels” to be changed, noting that the sanctions “didn’t fulfill the hopes that were pinned on them,” while Europe is “slowly bleeding.”

Read more …

Probably true.

Orbán: With Merkel, We Wouldn’t Have A War (EURActiv)

Russia’s war on Ukraine would not have happened if former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was still in office, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said during a visit to Berlin, where he met with both Merkel and current Chancellor Olaf Scholz.When Merkel announced that she would retire from politics, Orbán published a letter on his website saying the then-German Chancellor “understood us” and “we understood her”. Germany is Hungary’s main trading partner, accounting for approximately 27% of trade volume, while some 3,000 German companies are currently present in Hungary.

Merkel’s reaction to the 2014 crisis triggered by Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea was “a master stroke,” Orbán told a public event in Berlin on Tuesday (11 October), explaining that a war could have broken out at the time but was avoided due to the German chancellor’s actions.“Thank you, Angela!” he added. Asked whether this means the current war would have been prevented if the conservative ex-chancellor was still in office, Orbán said: “for certain.” Merkel, meanwhile, has been criticised since the onset of the Ukraine war for failing to reduce energy dependency from Russia and maintaining close economic ties with Moscow during her 16-year rule.

Nord Stream 2 pipeline, for many, Europe’s Achilles’ Heel, was a thorny issue during Merkel’s mandate. The pipeline, which aimed to carry 55 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Germany, was backed by Merkel but is now frozen due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Back then, eastern European countries opposed the project, but Hungary did not voice any significant opposition.

Read more …

It will take a rebellion against US and NATO. But all these countries are members of NATO.

Putin Says Russia Ready To Send Natural Gas To Europe Via Nord Stream 2 (OP)

Russia is ready to supply gas to Europe on the one undamaged line on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if the EU wants to start the route, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at an energy forum in Russia on Wednesday. Russia is ready to deliver additional volumes of natural gas to Europe this winter, but the ball is in the EU’s court to decide, Putin said, as carried by the Russian news agency Interfax. Putin also said that repairing the Nord Stream 1 and 2 lines that were found to have been sabotaged would only make sense if they will be used later, Interfax quoted the Russian president as saying. Nord Stream 2 was never put into operation after Germany axed the certification process following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russia, for its part, shut down Nord Stream 1 indefinitely in early September, claiming an inability to repair gas turbines because of the Western sanctions. Before the Nord Stream 1 and 2 leaks were detected at the end of September, Putin said that Russia had nothing to do with Europe’s energy crisis and that if Europe wanted more gas, it just had to “push the button” on Nord Stream 2 and “everything will get going,” that is, lift the sanctions on Nord Stream 2. A few days later, Stephan Weil, Minister-President of the northwestern German state of Lower Saxony, said that Germany could never rely on Russia for energy supply again, and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project would never go ahead.

Another few days later, the suspected sabotage on Nord Stream 1 and 2 lines in Swedish and Danish territorial waters in the Baltic Sea put Europe on heightened alert over the security of its energy infrastructure. Norway posted soldiers from its Home Guard to protect energy infrastructure as Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, and its Scandinavian neighbors are increasing security following the suspected sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines.

Read more …

This pipeline is from the 1960s. More than 50 years older than Nordstream. Not the same quality.

Leak Found In Key Russian Oil Pipeline To Germany – Polish Operator (RT)

Polish operator PERN has said it’s discovered a leak on the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies Russian oil to Germany. The rupture was detected late on Tuesday by automated systems on one of the two strings of the pipeline, some 70 kilometers from the town of Plock in central Poland, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. The damaged half was switched off immediately, and the other string continues to operate as normal, the company said. “At this point, the causes of the incident are not known,” PERN said, adding that its staff and firefighters were deployed to the site to assess the situation and secure the area.


The Druzhba pipeline is one of the largest oil transport networks in the world, spanning some 4,000km and bringing oil from Russia to Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany. The leak on the Druzhba pipeline follows explosions that were detected in late September on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, connecting Russia to the EU via Germany. The incident is widely considered to be the result of sabotage.

Read more …

“The list of people in custody includes five Russians..”

Russia Names Chief Suspect In Crimea Bridge Attack (RT)

Russia’s domestic security service, the FSB, has announced arrests over the attack on the Crimean Bridge. It has also revealed details of the alleged Ukrainian terrorist plot, including its mastermind.The agency accused the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry of being behind the explosion, which damaged the strategic structure last Saturday. It claimed that Commander, Kirill Budanov, was personally responsible for the operation. Russia has identified 12 individuals as suspected accomplices in the plot and has arrested eight of them, the FSB said. The list of people in custody includes five Russians and three foreigners, who have citizenship of Ukraine and Armenia.


The FSB claimed that the deadly cargo came from the Ukrainian city of Odessa. The explosives were disguised as rolls with plastic construction film, which were shipped on pallets and weighed 22,770 kg, the statement said.Investigators said the shipment left Odessa in August and went through Ruse, Bulgaria, to Poti in Georgia. It was then moved to Armenia, a country which has a free trade agreement and a relaxed customs regime with Russia. It was then imported into Russia via Georgia on October 4, according to the timeline. The transportation paperwork identified a non-existent firm in Crimea as the final recipient, according to the Russian agency. But the set of documents was only the latest of several used to disguise the movement of the cargo, it added.

Read more …

Germany will have to stand up for itself.

Putin Ponders EU’s Energy Future (RT)

Russia could move the transit volumes lost through the damage to the Nord Stream pipelines to the Black Sea region, by establishing a ‘gas hub’ in Türkiye for EU supplies, President Vladimir Putin has said. He pointed out it was possible to repair the damaged pipelines but that Russia and the EU should decide their fate.“We could … thus make the main routes for the supply of our fuel, our natural gas to Europe through Türkiye, creating the largest gas hub for Europe in Türkiye,” Putin said, during an address on Wednesday to the Moscow Energy Week conference. “That is, of course, if our partners are interested in this. And economic feasibility also matters, of course.”

According to the president, Russian gas could still be supplied to the EU via one remaining part of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that remains intact, but the ball was now in the EU’s court on whether it wanted this to happen. Russia could open the gas taps on that line if the bloc wanted it to, Putin stressed. The Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines abruptly lost pressure last month, following a series of powerful underwater explosions off the Danish island of Bornholm. The incident caused massive gas leaks, with large volumes entering the sea. The ruptures are widely considered to be the result of sabotage by an unknown party. The routes were designed to carry Russian natural gas directly to Germany, bypassing transit states, including Ukraine and Poland.

Moscow has called the incident a terrorist attack and said the US, a long-time critic of Germany’s reliance on Russian energy, stood to benefit most from the disabling of the routes, both politically and economically. Washington has denied any involvement. However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed the incident as a “tremendous opportunity” for Europe “to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy.” Neither pipeline was operational at the time of the breach. Berlin refused to certify the newer Nord Stream 2 after its completion last year, and Russia halted supplies via the older Nord Stream 1 in late August, citing sanctions-related maintenance problems.

Read more …

Inferior not in quality, but in competitiveness.

“..the US “sells its liquefied natural gas at four times the price that it sets for its own industrialists..”

American Gas ‘Inferior’ To Russia’s – Putin (RT)

The US has ample opportunity to supply its shale gas to the EU now that Russia’s Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been made inoperable, but this gas is “inferior” to Russian natural gas supplies, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. “It is quite clear who the beneficiaries [of the Nord Stream incident] are… the US, of course, which can now supply energy resources at high prices… It is now possible for them to force large liquefied natural gas volumes on European countries, which are clearly inferior in competitiveness to Russian pipeline gas,” the President said at the Russian Energy Week forum. He explained that the prices on US-produced LNG are much higher than those on Russian pipeline gas, “everyone was well aware of this before, and now is even more so,” and added that there are additional risks regarding US deliveries.

“The risks lie in the fact that all this supply is very unstable and can ‘float away’ to other regions,” Putin said, adding that US tankers carrying LNG to Europe may divert from Europe if sellers will be offered a higher price elsewhere. Putin’s words echo the statements made by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire earlier this week. Speaking at the National Assembly, he said that it is unacceptable that the US “sells its liquefied natural gas at four times the price that it sets for its own industrialists” and called for a “more balanced economic relationship on the energy issue” to be established between Brussels and Washington.

Russia used to cover over 40% of the EU’s gas needs prior to the start of the military operation in Ukraine and ensuing sanctions. Supplies dropped dramatically this year, especially after one of the major routes for gas deliveries was severed due to the under-investigation explosions that damaged Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines last month. The US, meanwhile, ramped up its supply of LNG to Europe over the past months, up to a point where it now accounts for nearly half of the bloc’s LNG imports, nearly twice the share recorded in 2021.

Read more …

Do such heads still exist in the west?

1962: Cool Heads Prevented A Soviet-US Naval Encounter Sparking A Nuclear War (RT)

On October 1, 1962, four Soviet submarines, each equipped with nuclear-armed torpedoes, departed Kola Bay in the Barents Sea en route to Cuba. The mini-fleet was intended to secretly bolster a vast Soviet military presence on and around the island and protect the construction of defensive missile sites requested by Havana in the wake of the CIA’s disastrous Bay of Pigs operation, in which Washington-backed rebel forces attempted to storm Havana and overthrow the popular Communist government of Fidel Castro. According to the private account of Vasily Arkhipov, the vice-admiral of submarine B-59, now published for the first time in commemoration of the event by the US National Security Archive, the weather during the transit was “generally conducive to keeping secrecy” over the long journey – “stormy weather, low clouds, low visibility, snow squalls, rain.”

Along the way, they detected “an elevated level of activity of anti-submarine aircraft radiolocation stations working in a short-interval regime,” but the covert convoy went unnoticed until October 18, when Soviet intelligence “intercepted a message from a French radio station informing some correspondents that Soviet submarines [had] entered the Atlantic and were now traveling to the American shores.” “How they discovered the submarine is hard to say…However, one can say with high confidence that the submarine was not discovered with aircraft radar,” Arkhipov claims. “[Soviet] commanders…were ordered to be on full alert and to continue to navigate in secret,” as a result, Arkipov recalled.


On October 24, the Soviet submarines arrived at their “designated areas” near Cuba, the very same day that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev told Washington’s high representative in Moscow that if US ships began searching Soviet merchant ships on the high seas, it would be considered piracy and he would give orders to Soviet submarines to destroy the harassing American vessels. It was a hugely tense situation and one that set the scene for what happened three days later, when a B-59 surfaced in order to recharge its batteries. According to the private account of Arkhipov, upon emerging it discovered: “An aircraft carrier, nine destroyers, four Neptune airplanes and three Trekkers, encircled by three concentric circles of coast guard forces…overflights by planes just 20-30 meters above the submarine’s conning tower, use of powerful searchlights, fire from automatic cannons (over 300 shells), dropping depth charges, cutting in front of the 5 submarine by destroyers at a dangerously [small] distance, targeting guns at the submarine, yelling from loudspeakers to stop engines, etc.”

Read more …

Output cut only after the midterms.

Saudi Arabia Unveils Biden Oil Demand (RT)

Saudi Arabia has said that OPEC’s decision to cut oil production was based solely on economic considerations, not politics, and that the organization resisted pressure from the United States to put off the move for several weeks.The Saudi Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Wednesday pushing back on allegations that the oil cut was intended to benefit Russia, insisting it is not “taking sides in international conflicts” or making “politically motivated” decisions.“These outcomes are based purely on economic considerations that take into account maintaining balance of supply and demand in the oil markets, as well as aim to limit volatility that does not serve the interests of consumers and producers, as has been always the case within OPEC +,” the ministry said, adding that the cut was approved “unanimously by all member states” of the organization.

While Washington suggested “postponing the OPEC+ decision for a month,” the Foreign Ministry said US officials were informed such a delay “would have had negative economic consequences.” The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the request from the United States, noting that Riyadh considered the idea a “political gambit by the [Joe] Biden administration to avoid bad news ahead of the US midterm elections.”However, a National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson, Adrienne Watson, denied that characterization, telling the outlet that US officials “questioned a Saudi analysis that the price of oil was about to plunge and urged them to wait and see how the market reacted.”

“It’s categorically false to connect this to US elections,” Watson said. “It’s about the impact of this shortsighted decision to the global economy.” President Biden responded harshly to the production cut, suggesting the move would help Moscow reap higher prices for its energy exports as Western nations seek to choke off the Russian economy in retaliation for the war in Ukraine. Biden also vowed “consequences” for Saudi Arabia, and though he did not elaborate what that could mean, top NSC spokesman John Kirby later told reporters that the White House would review the US-Saudi relationship to ensure “it is serving our national security interests.”


Saudi Arabia confirms Biden attempted to coerce them to postpone oil cuts until after the midterms

Read more …

Treating Ukraine as de facto NATO member. Not wise.

NATO Eyes 10-Year Plan For Ukraine – Politico (RT)

The NATO alliance will soon launch a scheme to rebuild Ukraine’s defense industry over the next decade, hoping to phase out Soviet-era weapons in favor of Western gear as Washington and its allies pledge new rounds of military aid to Kiev. Officials from NATO and Ukraine are set to meet next week to discuss a “long-term commitment” to revitalize Kiev’s military-industrial complex following months of fighting with Russia, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing a senior NATO official. “We will be looking at defense planning requirements to get Ukraine fully interoperable with NATO,” the unnamed official said. “It’s about shifting away from Soviet equipment … to NATO-compatible Western equipment.” Though the NATO staffer offered few details about the rebuilding effort, they said it would focus on Ukraine’s longer-term needs and likely involve several international partners.

The initiative will be separate from another NATO project discussed by acquisition officials earlier this month, which also seeks to bolster Ukraine’s defense sector while replenishing Western stockpiles after heavy arms shipments to Kiev. Earlier on Wednesday, the so-called ‘Ukraine Defense Contact Group’ met to discuss continued military support, with Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov stating that air defense systems are his country’s “top priority.” US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said Washington and its allies would aim to provide such weapons, calling on members of the contact group to “chip in and help [Ukraine] rebuild and sustain an integrated air and missile defense system, specifically old systems.”

Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren, meanwhile, vowed to send additional anti-aircraft missiles during Wednesday’s meeting, saying the “only result [Russia] is achieving with [continued attacks on Ukraine] is that we are going to deliver even more.” Those pledges came soon after Germany delivered the first of four IRIS-T air defense systems to Ukraine, while France, the United States and Britain have each announced new weapons transfers of their own, including French truck-mounted howitzers, US-made NASAMS air defense systems and AMRAAM air-to-air missiles from the UK.

Maersheimer Cohen

Read more …

‘Nobody is going to catch us. We are going to break a constitutional republic’s 250-year tradition because we don’t like the guy in the White House, and we’re going to manufacture a crime on it.'”

$1m Offer To Steele Shows FBI Misled Congress On Russia Probe: Kash Patel (JTN)

Following the bombshell revelation from the trial of Igor Danchenko that the FBI offered Christopher Steele $1 million to corroborate his dossier, former House Intelligence Committee investigator Kash Patel said this proves the bureau knew it hadn’t been able to verify the Trump-Russia collusion narrative and misled Congress. Danchenko, the primary source for the Steele dossier, is charged with five counts of lying to the FBI. As the prosecution opened its case against Danchenko Tuesday, Special Counsel John Durham questioned his first witness, FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Brian Auten. Auten testified that in early October 2016, the FBI offered Steele “up to $1 million” to provide corroborating evidence for his dossier, but the former British spy didn’t provide any such information to the bureau.

As a result, Steele wasn’t given the money because he was unable to “prove the allegations.” An application the FBI submitted to a FISA court on Oct. 21, 2016 for a warrant to initiate electronic surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page included uncorroborated information from the dossier. Auten testified that before the FBI received the dossier, it didn’t have enough evidence to obtain a FISA warrant. Auten also said the FBI contacted other intelligence agencies regarding the specific allegations in the dossier, but none were able to corroborate them. Durham asked Auten, “On October 21, 2016 did you have any information to corroborate that information?” “No,” Auten replied. Patel was asked about the purported reward offer on the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show Tuesday.

The House Intelligence panel chaired by then-Rep. Devin Nunes sent 17 congressional subpoenas “for information specifically related to payments and confidential human sources,” he said, “were denied this information, and we learn it four years after our investigation.” “That means somebody obstructed a congressional investigation with congressional subpoenas,” said Patel, a former national security prosecutor. This exposes “the depths that [the FBI] would go to to falsely corroborate the Steele dossier, which … shows they didn’t have it verified, which we’ve said the whole time,” Patel added. “And more importantly,” he continued, “they were willing to spend a million taxpayer dollars on shoveling political hot garbage through the federal court system just to surveil a political target that would have been totally baseless — it was baseless then.”

Referring to a group of senior FBI leaders during the James Comey era as “government gangsters,” Patel said “this bombshell” shows that they “were so arrogant, that they said, ‘Nobody is going to catch us. We are going to break a constitutional republic’s 250-year tradition because we don’t like the guy in the White House, and we’re going to manufacture a crime on it.'” Retired FBI supervisory special agent Bassem Youssef, one of the bureau’s most famous whistleblowers, said Tuesday’s revelation at the trial was unlike anything he ever saw in his three-decade FBI career.”Never in my entire career have I heard of such an offer to pay a source to corroborate their own information,” Youssef told Just the News. “The FBI queries other sources in order to validate the original source of information. It is unheard of that the FBI would offer to pay Steele $1 million to corroborate his own information.

Read more …

Just say no.

Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Turns Negative Within Months (ET)

The effectiveness of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine against infection turns negative over time, according to a new study that was funded by the vaccine maker. The effectiveness of three doses—a primary series and a booster—against infection remained above 50 percent after 150 days against BA.1, a subvariant of the Omicron virus variant, researchers estimated. However, against more recent strains, including the currently dominant BA.5, the effectiveness turned negative. Against BA.2, BA.4, and BA.5, the effectiveness went negative after 150 days; against BA.1.12.1, the effectiveness turned negative after 91 days. Negative effectiveness means that a vaccinated person is more likely to contract COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, than an unvaccinated person.

Researchers with Moderna and Kaiser Permanente, which carried out the study, also found that people who received three Moderna doses were more likely to become infected when compared to people who received just two doses. Researchers said that they attempted to reduce potential bias by taking actions such as adjusting for comorbidities, but that some confounding may remain. They said that some of the negative effectiveness estimates “could be due to differential risk behaviors among vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals when protection from antibodies becomes minimal.” Hung Fu Tseng, a researcher with Kaiser Permanente Southern California and the study’s corresponding author, declined to provide evidence for the statement or otherwise comment on the negative effectiveness estimates.

A slew of other studies and analyses have found that the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines turns negative over time, including a study that estimated the protection for children aged 5 to 11 turned negative after 18 or 20 weeks, and an analysis of data from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) testing program that estimated the shielding turned negative around six months. Swedish researchers in September concluded that effectiveness turned negative within several months.

Read more …

“..these funds are funded by workers and yet they are “engaging in actions which destroy the living standards of those workers..”

Europe’s Pension Funds Are Gambling With Food Prices (EUO)

Some of Europe’s largest pension funds are investing billions of euros in volatile commodity markets, risking the hard-earned income of millions of workers while fuelling a global hunger crisis caused in part by such investments, a new investigation has found. The findings also raise questions over whether the European Union’s continued drive to deregulate its financial markets will worsen the situation in the future. The rules governing the bloc’s capital markets are currently under review. Soaring prices of key commodities such as food and energy have triggered a cost of living crisis around the world, including in Europe. The United Nations said the increases may have also pushed an estimated 71 million people in developing nations into poverty.

Lighthouse Reports, a European non-profit newsroom, analysed the accounts of more than 70 major pension funds in Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Finland and Denmark. While some funds explicitly forbid speculating in commodities, especially in food, 15 are currently investing in them, with the three biggest buyers the Netherlands, UK and Denmark held a total of €37.6bn between them at the end of 2021. According to Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the findings show that pension funds are amongst the financial institutions that have aggravated the problem of investor speculation driving food prices. This is “particularly egregious” because these funds are funded by workers and yet they are “engaging in actions which destroy the living standards of those workers”, she said.

Most funds do not disaggregate between hard commodities, such as gold and oil, and soft commodities, such as agriculture and livestock, but experts say the ultimate impact — rising commodity prices — is likely to be the same. “Whether it is in food or energy, both are equivalently terrible from the point of view of workers and developing countries because a fuel price increase translates into prices of all other prices going up,” says Ghosh. In addition, commodity markets are risky to invest in, said Ann Pettifor, one of the few economists who predicted the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. “I don’t want my pension fund to go near something as volatile as a commodity market, basically, especially the ones in energy and in food,” she said.

Read more …

When Adam Curtis makes a film (series), you watch. When Adam Curtis writes, you read.

“..on how hyper-capitalism wrecked a nation – and why Liz Truss must take heed..”

In the 1990’s, Russia male life expectancy fell by 15-20 years. That’s what Putin inhereted.

‘They Are Stealing Russia’ (Adam Curtis)

The central mystery of our time is why, at a moment when the whole political and social system is out of control and in total chaos, no one seems able to imagine any alternative. The economic system is not delivering the good life it once promised, but is instead creating chaos and hardship for millions. Meanwhile, those in charge of the system are profiting massively from that chaos, feeding off the uncertainty. And the political class are in thrall to an economic theory that has become absurd and corrupted. I’ve just made TraumaZone, a series of films about another time when that was happening. It was in Russia in the 1990s after communism collapsed. Those in charge began an experiment to create an extreme form of capitalism. I made it because I don’t think we in the west understand what the Russians went through: a cataclysm that tore apart the foundations of society.

The films are made using a unique source of material: thousands of hours of raw footage recorded by BBC crews in Russia during that time, much of it never seen before. What makes it so extraordinary is that it records the experiences of Russians at every level of society as their world fell apart: from inside the Kremlin to the frozen mining cities of the Arctic circle, from life in the tiny villages of the vast steppes to the strange wars fought in the mountains and forests of the Caucasus. As I watched the footage I decided that I shouldn’t use my voice or paste music over it. The material was so strong that I didn’t want to intrude pointlessly, but rather let viewers simply experience what was happening, because it is was out of this – the anger, violence, desperation and overwhelming corruption – that Vladimir Putin emerged.

But as I made the films, the growing chaos here in Britain made me see parallels. There are of course vast differences between our society and the Russia of 30 years ago, but the more you find out about the extreme economic experiment there, and what is happening here now with the present government, the more you see that they both share very similar roots that have nothing to do with either capitalism or communism. The clue lies in the man who imposed the “shock therapy” experiment on Russia. Called Yegor Gaidar, he was at the heart of the communist establishment. His grandfather was the most famous writer of children’s books in the Soviet Union, and Gaidar had married the daughter of one of the Strugatsky brothers, science-fiction writers who wrote the novel the film Stalker was based on.

This economist who would become acting prime minister set out to create a perfect capitalist system in Russia. He had to do it fast, he said, to stop communism from ever returning. Overnight, he removed all controls over prices, while the government gave up on any attempt to manage the system. The aim, said Gaidar, was to create a new zone of perfect freedom in which, despite initial pain, the system would find its own natural equilibrium. But if you look closer, you will see that his plan had little to do with freedom. It was in fact an odd, machine-like vision of the world driven by pseudoscientific ideas.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PressTV

 

 

US soldier

 

 

Hologram

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle October 13 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 61 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #118337

    Paul Gauguin Sunken lane 1884   • Putin ‘Totally Miscalculated’ Russia’s Ability To Occupy Ukraine – Biden (G.) • Some of Us Don’t Think the Russ
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle October 13 2022]

    #118338

    Hopefully, yesterday’s ad issues are gone now; I’ve been assured they were. But do let me know if anything’s still wrong.

    #118339
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Paul Gauguin Sunken lane 1884

    Lovey, beautifully rendered and a feast for the eyes; I would love a walk down that road…

    #118340
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Not a trick question yesterday: if they hated war, how did they end up shooting people all day?

    “Who did I serve?” Yes, not only do we know this now, dum-dum, we knew it was all lies then, in 2002. And it’s not for “Profit”: does Europe look like they’re profiting right now? It’s for Religion. Their weirdo religion of universal death. #AntiLogos, #AntiLife.

    “NATO to Proceed with Planned Nuclear Exercises Next Week. Stoltenberg said breaking “routine” would be the “wrong signal to send” right now.

    We all know you win wars using “signals”. I don’t really know what kind of pathology this is, but my thought is they haven’t been punched in the face enough. There’s a cure for that.

    “The purchase of 4.5 billion doses of the covid-19 vaccine for 450 million residents.”

    Yeah, I’ve been seeing this over and over again lately. Talk about welfare queens! You want to know how bad at math the populous are? There you go. Does 2 = 2 ??? Not a trick question. Or does 2 = 200? For corporations and politicians 2 = $2 Billion free dollars.

    “Tulsi” is a collective. As all candidates are. So who is her collective? Where do they live, what do they want, and did they change sides?

    Proposing: they are a VERY small minority of legacy power, trying to re-instate the old Democratic Party from I dunno, the 90s, when Clinton’s platform was identical to Trump’s platform on most everything. But I don’t WANT that platform or party, because we shot through there to get here. Clearly it was neither strong nor honest enough.

    Atlantic: Again, I sound like over-the-top, impossible, spit-foaming hyperbole but I’m not. Here we have a whole city full of brown Muslim people being called Nazi White Supremacists by the leading voice of White Karen from Vassar and Smith Prep all-Girl’s college. How Dare You! Get on that plantation, pick that cotton, brownie! I’ve got keyboard lattes to sip. We mommy-mommy care, oh so much, dearest.

    Clearly there is NO level of pathological that can possibly pop the bubble of Woke White Karens. Also the memo went out that “we hate Kanye” and he’s not black anymore, because Joe and The Atlantic are the Great Deciders of who is, and is not, allowed, by us, to be what they are. Aka, Black. All heil.

    “Putin ‘Totally Miscalculated’ Russia’s Ability to Occupy Ukraine – Biden (G.)”

    Equal to The Atlantic, “The Guardian” and their Putin-telepathy. They are mind-melded and know what he was thinking and planning at all times.

    “No US leader would ever stand by and do nothing while thousands of Americans were savagely slaughtered”

    Like by Pfizer? Or by fentanyl? You are kidding, right? All deaths, at all times, by all people, for all reasons, are a good thing. So long as it profits them.

    But Whitney can say anything he likes — Everyone is innoculated against it. They either are subjects to “The Narrative” or broken away from it. Here’s another way to look at it: they are either tuned into and channeling “Spirit of AntiChrist”, or that of “Christ Consciousness.” That is how they get “the memo” that we Kanye is no longer black and we lynch him now.

    What you get is where you put your attention. They are allied with this. In “Revelation”, that is, the Great Revealing, we become aware of long-hidden information, and even the very elect are deceived. That is, the Fallacy of Authority, the “Experts”. We are choosing sides in the Great Spiritual War, in the foggiest terms, will we be “Good” or “Evil”? Will we live for ourselves, our egos alone, or are we of “All-One-God-Faith”? This is a very deep choosing of who you actually are, and I can’t tell you who you are. It’s more a fact, not a choice.

    So all sides are preaching to the choir exclusively. Words are meaningless, perhaps, and only actions matter. You will die for your cause if they have anything to say about it.

    In fact, come to think of it, the Left has now moved beyond keyboard lattes and are discussing how to arm up with fully-auto weapons on Reddit. That’s an ominous turn considering how violent and unhinged they are. …And how relentlessly infantile and inexperienced.

    “NATO Planned a Pre-emptive Strike on Russia (Milacic)”

    I have no idea what they’re saying here. I mean, yes, the U.S. has always, now and forever, since Stalin snatched them away from London Trotskyites, wanted to attack and conquer Russia. We have arranged everything, every month of every year to that end. We altered our weapons and changed out nuclear treaties and protocols to allow it. However, you don’t attack Russia from Sicily. Like WTF. The whole POINT of Ukraine was that we needed first strike 15m or less from Moscow or it wasn’t feasible. Polaris is just another average practice-run to attack Russia, like every other one we had for 70 years.

    And if it’s a “Surprise” why did you HAVE the exercise? And name Kiev specifically? Not much of a surprise. The Russian-Sakers need to back up from emotion and partisanship and think clearly again. Thank God – afaikt – Putin and the Generals aren’t, and I don’t care how irritating that is to them.

    Europe: Lack of Russian Oil Could Spark ‘Worst Energy Crisis in Decades’ (ZH)”

    Murdering all people, at all times, for all reasons, always a good thing. But the favorite reason is for the environment. Behold! A Pale Horse! The “Chloros”, the pale GREEN horseman, who kills more than war and pestilence combined. And to thunderous applause! Yay, dead people! Shut up and take my children! Nothing can cure it, clearly not even death.

    “…the sanctions “didn’t fulfill the hopes that were pinned on them,”

    Sure they did. They’re killing people, and that’s a win. All death at all places and all reasons fulfill our mission and purpose in life.

    “claiming an inability to repair gas turbines because of the Western sanctions.”

    As this is a verifiable fact, this word is of course wicked and relentless propaganda. That’s why in journalism, you don’t “Claim”. You “Said.” Leave your fancy thesaurus at home and I don’t care what the weather was, the color of his shirt, or how you felt about it. Just the facts, ma’am. You’re Fired.

    “it was possible to repair the damaged pipelines but that Russia and the EU should decide their fate.“

    But they are a death cult, worshiping the god of death and lies. They can’t change, as that is their one true religion. Prove me wrong. The salvation will be for the tiny remnant left after the death cult goes full Hale-Bopp. As they already have, past-tense. This is pretty common in history and they take a lot of people with them.

    “Washington-backed rebel forces attempted to storm Havana and overthrow the popular Communist government”

    Invading nations and toppling governments worldwide. The middle years of our 99 or 199 illegal invasion-coups.
    Pic
    “It’s not Fascism when we do it!”

    Only picking the Donkey as it was JFK that time. They – The Dulles, the Three-Letter-men – are tireless, equal-opportunity anti-democracy mass-murderers. This is the key story, as it has all templates and stories before and since in it: 1) The Lettermen lie to, gaslight, and refuse to read the elected government into what’s really going on, especially lying and omitting the President. 2) In order to cause a world war and nuclear armegeddon. 3) the Elected officials then have to special rendition the Lettermen and wire them up on a bucket in Gitmo to find out what they did 4) the quasi-normal humans – saying a lot for the scum that are politicos – then turn off Defcon 5 as idiotic 6) they leave the Lettermen to do it all over again tomorrow. Which they IMMEDIATELY do. “What are we doing tonight, Brain?” “Same thing we do every night: Try to Destroy the whole world.” (In service of our god and religion)

    Can we just cut to the chase in Step 1 and assume correctly it’s these religious fanatics burrowed in, arrest and execute them for quite obvious and evident war crimes, Mr. Bolton? You’d make a mint on pay-per-view.

    “ NATO Eyes 10-Year Plan For Ukraine – Politico (RT)”

    Worse than that: it definitively presumes Ukraine is entirely SUBSERVIENT to NATO. If I make plans that you follow, then I’m your boss, right?

    “long-term commitment” to revitalize Kiev’s military-industrial complex following months of fighting with Russia,”

    Where? They no longer have the mines or the industry, or the non-metrosexuals willing to work. And: There’s a “long-term”? That sounds pretty optimistic. …Not for Ukraine. I mean they actually believe NATO, Europe, and the U.S. will exist by next year, projecting anything. Good luck with that.

    “ $1m Offer To Steele Shows FBI Misled Congress On Russia Probe: Kash Patel (JTN)”

    Yup, and nothing will happen. No one cares. There is no level of villainy that is not Good if it serves my goals.

    “…these funds are funded by workers and yet they are “engaging in actions which destroy the living standards of those workers..”

    Yes: ESG. Green Horse. It murders people by the hundred-thousands, therefore it’s a great and admirable service. To our god and weirdo religion. They LOSE money on every one of them. Yet they continue without hesitation. You come up with another reason.

    “The central mystery of our time is why, at a moment when the whole political and social system is out of control and in total chaos, no one seems able to imagine any alternative.”

    “We” imagined lots of alternatives. We even trimmed them down to “Leave me the f– alone.” But we are not a Democracy, anywhere in the West, and officially as of 20 years ago the colleges ran that study that said the People have NO effect on any government policy. Even the corporations barely do: look at Germany. Only the Cabal, largely financial. So we’ve moved off vista imagining the horizons, to hunkering down and responding, ‘cause this will be bad. That’s more practical.

    The clue lies in the man who imposed the “shock therapy” experiment on Russia. Called Yegor Gaidar, he was at the heart of the communist establishment.”

    Yes. It will be the communists that do this to us, as they are already, right now. No? Where are the anarcho-capitalists and Libertarians getting in your business, destroying your day? Do they believe in morality and a justice system? Yes, because you can’t have private property without one. Is it too much to just accept the system proven to be least-bad? Or do you all want more of this first?

    #118341
    Dora
    Participant

    Dr. Peter McCullough

    “Told Swedish supermodel Aga Wilson that the “Bio-pharmaceutical Complex” is working as a world wide syndicate. They declare “medical emergencies” and then drain treasuries dry with prepurchased products before they are even developed or tested such as the COVID-19 vaccines. ”
    https://gettr.com/post/p1u1miu538e

    #118342
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    There are lessons to be learned from an armed mugging. The remorseless criminal, for example, learns that by simply sticking a gun into somebody’s face they can boldly take pretty much anything that they want, nine times out of ten, and the victims learn that there is almost nothing people won’t do to say alive.

    Another lesson is that it works on the grand scale very much the same as it does on the small.

    The entire world was just mugged (crime in progress) like never before in human history because multiple new ultra-high technologies . . . coupled with ‘nothing-new-here’ bad old fashioned psychopathy . . . . gave the criminals overwhelming advantages such as never before known in human history either.

    Yet another big lesson (and there are many lessons in this tragic debacle) is that life is largely a numbers game. Most violent crime does not end in immediate death. Many do die, of course, but most do not. Some victims escape physical injury altogether, while many others are merely wounded, and everyone who doesn’t get killed immediately finds themselves in a new situation that is so unprecedented and almost incomprehensibly complicated that they remain stunned for a very long time.

    Ultimately, as the fog of war clears to some degree (and it does gradually clear as the surviving combatants become battle hardened) there are choices to be made. And those choices shall be made, as well as implemented, in ways that have never before played out at this scale either.

    The species of which each and every one of us is a working part, is seriously flawed. This fact is utterly undeniable (although our capacity for denial is monumentally robust).

    The “soft robot” (homo sapiens) which we more or less compulsively (and erroneously!) identify with as our “selves” is proven capable of acquiring sufficient power to maim or destroy itself, at the same time that it is NOT YET PROVEN WISE ENOUGH to manage that power sufficiently well enough to avoid permanently maiming or extincting the species itself. Nuclear cataclysm and genetic meddling are but two of many other ways that humankind can off itself.

    It is the “sapiens” part of the genomic nomenclature that seems to be the problem. I would be interested in hearing your personal take on that question. Are we sapient enough to make the cut? Or is the on-board “organically based artificial intelligence computer [brain]” we haul around in our noggins doomed to fuck it up every time unless managed by external (NOT organically built-in & NOT materialistically on-board) spirit based intervention?

    My personal opinion (borne out by the current level of violent idiocy extant) is that we have slightly exceeded the limit on how “smart” an organically based “AI” can get before Artificial Intelligence’s innate LACK of spirit based value judgment predictably results in catastrophically terminal “bad judgments” which inevitably and invariably end in biological extinction . . . one way or the other.

    Thankfully, conclusion of the experiment is not merely close at hand. It is literally in its final stages as we speak.

    Homo Sap shall either evolve, or end. Those who learn the important lessons from that event shall have moved closer to God, and those who do not shall continue on their Express Route to the other place.

    All aboard!

    #118344

    Mail from the new ad servicer we got in, 10 days ago:

    “It’s come to our attention that this website has been flagged by half of the partners we have tried to connect, including a couple of our major ones, that they consider this site fraud. It’s not just because of the content, which some of them could consider misinformation, but because 98% of your traffic is direct which would imply part of it is bought. I’m really sorry, but we have no control over this or ability to change it.  Given your experience, and the fact that lower end partners are the only ones willing to connect, I think it might be best for us to part ways.”

    We’ve tried 5,6 of these companies over the past 2 years or so, and keep running into the same shit. I am getting tired of it. No ads would be great, but we can’t afford that. I’m already not promoting TAE with SEO etc., because at some point someone will try to delete/ban/censor us, but this is starting to get out of hand. I want no-one to tell me what to say.

    And you know, I’m not promoting child abuse or other weird stuff that’s all the rage today, I simply give people a different view of the world than their media do(es).

    #118345
    zerosum
    Participant

    @ RIM
    I simply give people a different view of the world than their media do(es).
    I can only do my best to support your efforts with my 2 cents.

    Truth is hard to sell if it doesn’t pay well.

    Trudeau buying Ukrainian votes.
    Why war in Ukraine is WWIII

    History of Ukraine, serfdom is/was regularly rewritten by the winners, because of the constant/repeated civil wars.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom
    Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed during the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages in Europe and lasted in some countries until the mid-19th century.[1]

    The Ukrainian diaspora is found throughout numerous regions worldwide including other post-Soviet states as well as in other countries such as Poland,[1] the United States,[2] Canada, the UK[3][4] and Brazil.[5]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_diaspora
    The Ukrainian diaspora in Canada is one of the largest, and Canada itself is the third largest country in the world for the number of Ukrainians.
    Ukrainian diasporas – both first and second categories are active lobbyists, promoters, advocates of Ukrainian interests on the territory of Canada.
    ————
    Russian Roulette

    Negative effectiveness means that a vaccinated person is more likely to contract COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, than an unvaccinated person.

    #118347

    RIM- I am still getting the redirect on Safari, associated with the bottom ad. Interestingly, safari’s history bar only shows the redirect and not TAE. I can get TAE to load if I hit the X of the ad before the redirect happens, but it still doesn’t show TAE on the history bar. Brave works, though, which is where I am now.

    #118348
    zerosum
    Participant

    It’s not the truth, It’s not a lie …. It’s a green screen.

    https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/video/discover/how-to-use-green-screen.html
    How to use a green screen.
    Get advice from the pros on how to properly light your screen and subject. Then incorporate your new background image seamlessly using the Ultra Key tool in Adobe Premiere Pro.

    #118349
    Noirette
    Participant

    A while ago, there was talk here about Steve Ludlum, his blog, Economic Undertow, and him not posting any longer, several ppl, me incl. read or followed him.

    I clicked on and –> a new post is up, Sept. 1, 2022.

    The Big Lie at the root of a war of aggression is that it is going to be easy.

    excerpt, quote:

    Ukrainians leverage their sense of national identity, the Russians’ identity is an edifice cribbed together out of imperial arrogance, abuse and nostalgia.

    The Ukrainians defend their homes and families, the Russians abandon their own dead and wounded to rot where they fall or to be eaten by dogs.

    So-called Russian ‘gains’ are negative; their assets burn into ashes and scrap while the Ukrainians become increasingly capable.

    There is the increase of longer range Western- and domestically produced weapons systems to destroy Russia’s remaining supply capacity.

    Soon to come is more Western armor and modern jets, more drones and most importantly, an increase in better trained Ukrainians.

    What does Russia look forward to? Moral – and economic breakdown against the backdrop of jabbering TV madmen. Failing in Ukraine, there is nothing for Russia but turn against itself. It is the man trying hard to hang itself and ultimately succeeding.

    end quote.

    Z Marks the Spot

    I was quite surprised by this content.

    #118350
    Dr. D
    Participant

    S-M-A-R-T(pic)

    #118352
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “I was quite surprised by this content.”

    His take on Covid was equally strange. That and not writing for two years is also strange. Who knows what is going on in his mind.

    #118353
    Dora
    Participant

    The old movie “The Terminator” is starting to look like a warning, except the “machines” are internet algorithms programmed to reject information their programmers want silenced.

    #118354
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Steve Ludlum https://www.economic-undertow.com/2022/09/01/z-marks-the-spot/ (don’t bother except to serve as a warning to others)

    Reading it, all I thought was he’s talking about the United States:
    The Big Lie is one the aggressor tells himself.
    …there is the easy war and nothing else.
    …they will ‘welcome us with flowers’, that the ‘boys will be home by Christmas’. That the war will not cost anything or that it will be profitable to our side. (Yes, literally, and attributes this all-American quote to Russia)
    …twenty-plus years of trying to undermine and absorb the Kyiv government by intrigue.
    Lies take root in the garden of disinterest.
    Little attention was made to Ukraine struggle from 2014 to the immediate run up to the invasion
    That the source of the cash was thieving oligarchs didn’t matter.
    …has a demographic imbalance skewed toward the elderly with its younger persons working for technology- and commercial firms or in the ‘loan shark’ economy
    Even among the poorly educated, Russians consider the military as employment of last resort, leaving Russia with legions of bribe-hungry functionaries, police and informants … and a military starved of capable soldiers.

    …Too many to continue. Just thoughtless, pejorative claptrap.

    For massive, thoughtless, provably idiotic lies, try this example:
    “Russians crossed the border in many places and Ukrainians immediately started shooting at them.”

    You mean like how majority Donbass begged Russia to defend and annex them? So…Donestsk was being really tricky-tricky? Shot them when they came in as asked to do what they were asked? No?

    “Unlike Syrian rebels, the Ukrainians were heavily armed, well led and enjoyed almost 100% popular support.”

    100% support in Donbass, who seceded and were shelled for 10 years, killing 14,000 people? ‘Cause both the secession AND the shelling kind of make be think their support was somewhere lower than 100%. They were “Heavily armed” because guns are illegal there and no one has on the ground experience with them?

    Melitopol. These gains was not so much by force of arms but by one-and-done efforts of fifth-columnists and spies holding Ukrainian public offices”

    …So you mean the thousands of spies and turncoats in your country with 100% solidarity support?

    “fighter jets shooting down Russian aircraft and helicopters in large numbers was no myth.”

    Uh-huh. Every. Sentence. Every one. Talk about the “Big Lie” he uses like a mantra 50 times! There is no stone unturned for telling every lie. There is no partisanship or hyperbole unused. There is no logic or fact-checking approached.

    “Russia is little more than a terrorist group like ISIS. Who would voluntarily have anything to do with it?”

    Um. Almost the entire world? Everyone outside of a few irrelevant cities like London, Ottawa, and Sydney? 2/3rds of the world population and arguably about half of people in the nations he claims are against Russia?

    Not to stop with local lies, there are sweeping intellectual lies: “credit IS the economy,” Really? There’s no such thing as cash? But I mean, why not? If he is “100% Support” for every evil war and lie in the West, then he DEFINITELY must 100% believe this one. There is no money. There are no goods. There is no work or economic activity. There is only debt.

    “Russia’s easy war is turning out to be large, crippling and unaffordably costly. … Hydrocarbons are the source of Russia’s income”

    Income of which is higher and better than ever. Both in money terms, and in sales terms. According to Steve, they are going to go bankrupt by selling product at a higher price and making more money for less work. But hey: if you’re a guy who believes all money is credit and cash doesn’t exist, that all makes sense, right?

    #118355
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “The old movie “The Terminator” is starting to look like a warning, except the “machines” are internet algorithms programmed to reject information their programmers want silenced. ”

    Are you sure they aren’t your neighbors who wanted to cut off your access to the grocery store because you didn’t want to do what the gods in washington wanted?

    #118356
    Dora
    Participant

    Revealed: PR firm that represents Pfizer and Moderna also sits on CDC vaccine division – sparking major conflict of interest concerns

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11303017/PR-firm-represents-Pfizer-Moderna-sits-CDC-vaccine-advisory-committee.html

    #118357
    Noirette
    Participant

    Thx, re. Ludlum, Mr. House and Dr. D, Yes. I didn’t know about his take re. covid.
    ————
    France: Jean Lassale, ex. deputy, ex Pres. Candidate, says he almost died from the vax, and that Macron, and many other F Gvmt. Parliament members, a majority, are not vaccinated.

    The questioner, a pretty very young woman, asks Lassale,

    “But why did you vaccinate yourself and take that risk?” > lit. trans.

    He responds, “Well I wanted to be an example, and do the right thing, etc.”

    here the interview, eng subs.

    Vaccins : Jean Lassalle a failli mourir !

    #118358
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Empire of Lies – Ukronaziland and Eurotardistan

    Celebrating the terrorist truck bombing of the Kerch Bridge.

    The border collie is Russia

    .

    #118359
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Still trouble with some strange security websites hijacking TAE! It happens on my iPad and my PC.

    F.S.

    #118360
    userzeroid
    Participant

    Happened to me also the other day. I had to close the tab – back buttons or back through browser history wouldn’t move it off the hijack site. I then reopened the browser, typed in TAE’s url and continued where I left off. It didn’t hijack me again after this.

    RIM that is not what you need considering the persistent effort you make curating links, contrarian perspectives to the mainstream, satire etc. It all seems, rather predictably, designed to break the spirits (and the pocket) of free thinking individuals. There are plenty of us that come here for that and don’t take kindly to that type of jive. That is a grind. I note that Denninger had to de-monetise that side of his site in order to speak freely with his corporate advertising setup. What an effort to churn through these companies, each saying/doing much the same in response. Its just time away from doing what you would otherwise be doing – being productive.

    What a selection today. Adam Curtis article is lucid and on point.

    How is it when I get to your end pictures of amazing wildlife on planet earth, I always shed a tear for the beauty in this world that is mistreated and unappreciated? Great show man

    #118361
    userzeroid
    Participant

    Website just got hijacked again. Website called mega clean phone dot com. Saved the url and a screen shot of the site. Can send it to you if the info will be of any assistance. Just let me know

    #118362

    Someone may have brought this up before, but Kunstler has a good interview with Luongo from October 7.

    #118363
    maryballon
    Participant

    RIM i am sory to say that the targeted pop-up scam “Apple Security Alert” turned up on my cell phone today. Only on TAE and not on my laptop. Cybernews has info of how to get rid of it.

    #118364
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Ha maybe you’ve become a target ! If so congrats!

    #118365
    Armenio Pereira
    Participant

    We do not know reality – we only have a multitude of personal versions of reality, that either compete or cooperate. With cooperation nearly extinct, now’s the time of unbridled competition – disaggregation is inevitable. The victor takes it all, and won’t be extolled. The triumph will be the greatest, and bitterest, disappointment.

    #118366
    hexadec
    Participant

    On my Safari TAE is hijacked by guroshied. I asked the internet how to stop it and after following the instructions it still pops up. I’ve had no problem on TAE using Firefox.

    #118367
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “I’ve had no problem on TAE using Firefox.”

    Same

    #118368
    SeaBirds
    Participant

    Michegin. “Muslim parents…become the new face of the far right”
    Well maybe there is yet some hope for Germany. Areas like Nordrhein-Westfalia are teeming with immigrant Muslim families. These folk also know the value of the black market, and that Govt meddling, public and private debt, bureaucracy and excessive taxation is an abomination on the face of the planet😊. And they’re right – less government and win-win deals are the foundation of progress and prosperity (Bill Bonner!)

    Orban: “with Merkel we wouldn’t have a war”
    You can also wonder that with Merkel’s chosen successor, Laschet, there may not have been a war. How exactly did the hapless Scholz become ensconsced in the Chancellory? Should he by rights be there at all? It was yet another of those suspiciously close-run elections where one candidate magically sneaks out into the lead after a ‘too-close-to-call’ start. They seem to happen often these days.

    Thanks to all, esp RIM.
    Todays Gauguin, there is beauty in the ‘sunken lane’

    #118369
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Re: The Atlantic, “Cover Story, The Evolution of White Supremacy, In Dearborn MIchigan, Muslim parents…” by Abby Ohlheiser

    I checked to see whether that was a real article at The Atlantic, and it’s evidently fake. Couldn’t find it, and it looks like Abby Ohlheiser hasn’t written for The Atlantic since 2014.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/author/abby-ohlheiser/

    #118370
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ Dr. D #118340

    Thank you for this comment. Yes I see death coming to the west. What a weird thought. I should have joined the Amish / Mennonites for a real education in living life when I was young.

    #118371
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Some (most?) of the weapons pledged to Ukraine have not yet been built. Many of the western weapon systems supplied so far and those promised are inferior to what Ukraine started the war with (already destroyed by Russia).

    The general consensus of the sane is that the NATOstan war against Russia will morph into a new and very deadly phase mid-November.

    Meanwhile, the NATOstan financial system is at the unravelling stage.

    For most people, [consumerism] Christmas is cancelled.

    #118372
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    #118373
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “It’s come to our attention that this website has been flagged by half of the partners we have tried to connect, including a couple of our major ones… I think it might be best for us to part ways.”

    Sounds like they’re trying to “cancel” TAE.
    Here’s a site which says TAE is “right biased” and “a pseudoscience website” which might be influencing advertisers and their platforms:

    Overall, we rate The Automatic Earth Right Biased and a pseudoscience website based on the promotion of misinformation and pseudoscience during the covid-19 pandemic.

    The Automatic Earth publishes original blog posts with loaded wording such as this Institutionalization on Steroids. This story reports negatively on mask-wearing, Anthony Fauci, and vaccines as it relates to Covid-19. In other words, it is promoting pseudoscience. In fact, most recent stories promote pseudoscience and/or conspiracy theories related to anti-vaccination propaganda related to Covid-19, such as The Ethics of Child Vaccinations.

    https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-automatic-earth/

    #118374
    John Day
    Participant

    drjohnsblog.substack.com

    Testing

    #118375
    John Day
    Participant

    That entered. The evil Trojan virus got me somehow this morning after I posted the blog.
    I’m not sure how long I have before it pops up again, but this is a 2007 desktop, not updated for 8 years, so I can’t do things like copy/paste. Still it’s not shut down.
    I know Ilargi’s folks have been working hard to eradicate it.
    I expect these censorship attacks to continue until after midterms, which is the pattern I have been hit with since Bernie Sanders was leading in the DNC primaries, until things went funny and Tulsi Gabbard quit in protest.
    drjohnsblog.substack.com http://www.johndayblog.com
    The interview with Meryl Nass MD went well, “aired” on CHD TV this morning and is archived there. Link at blog.

    #118376
    John Day
    Participant

    Evil bot “Prove you are human by clicking accept” has not jumped up yet.

    Good work, Ilargi!

    #118377
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The irony of proving to a bot that I am a human sends my thought processes into a combination tailspin/endless loop.

    #118378
    zerosum
    Participant

    People are being scared into thinking about peace by scaring them with a radioactive war.

    #118379
    Redneck
    Participant

    Absolutely Putin miscalculated , big time. Russian intel believed the majority of Ukrainians were with them , big mistake. The facts show now that the majority of Ukrainians supported the coup and did not want to be under Russian control. Putin and Russians seem to have amnesia about their recent history and thought that Europe loved them.Remember that Russians starved six million Ukrainians to death so their grain could be sold for hard currency in 1932 , that is not ancient history and not forgotten.Absolutely Putin miscalculated , the Russians thought that the Majority of Ukrainians wanted to be a Russian puppet state.Wrong! Didn’t the Russians invade and occupy all of Eastern Europe not so long ago? Is it a surprise that Eastern Europe wants to be in NATO as a defence against another Russian invasion/occupation? Isn’t it obvious now that the majority of Ukrainians agreed with the coup and did not want to be under Russian control? Did not Russia invade Poland at the same time that the Germans did in nineteen forty five? Didn’t Russians murdered twenty thousand Polish officers and security forces in the Katyn forest? Did not Russians starve to death six million Ukrainians during the Holodomor in the Ukraine? Is it any wonder they hate Russians? Have Ukraine and the rest of Eastern Europe been compensated by Russia for the atrocities and invasions they have perpetrated on Europe? The Germans did , Russia never did.Hasn’t Russia invaded Finland twice? Didn’t Russia send it’s army into Eastern Europe when they wanted some breathing space from the Soviet occupation and squash their bid for freedoms? Did not Russians spend decades where millions of their own died when they were enslaved and worked to death in the Gulags by the Kremlin? Weren’t the gulags only shutdown finally in the sixties? So of course Eastern Europe and Ukraine want to be in NATO and not associated with a Russia that has brought them so much death and destruction. So why all this endless apologising for the West offering shelter to Eastern Europe and Ukraine? How come Putin and Russia are saintly angels who the West must bend it’s knee to? So yes time for Europe to turn their back on the invading Russians. Stop using their energy , stop trading with them and cut them off from Europe for ever , after all they claim they are now over Europe and have their own multi polar group to trade and have cultural ties with. Russia and Putin are not the friendly, loving democratic people that anti Westerners think are. The Russian opposition leader is in prison , the opposition press has been shut down , opposition journalists have been murdered. Where is the democracy there? What do all the Putin lovers have to say about these facts? Crickets? Russian oligarchs are Putin’s friends and profit off this war just as US and Ukrainian oligarchs do , Putin’s cook for example. Look at the mobilisation , Putin’s elites , the bankers, IT people , all journalists have been exempt from service , the body bags are not going to filled with middle and upper class kids from Moscow and St Petersburg , the body bags are going to filled with the bodies of minorities and the poor , sound familiar? Billions have disappeared into the pockets of the Russian military complex but now draftees are being dumped at the front with nothing but a handgun , some have to buy their own food and body armour , is this the great society we place above us? Does not Putin/Russia have it’s own private army of goons , the mirror image of the US Blackwater mercenaries ,called the Wagner group? Doesn’t the Wagner group recruit from Russian prisons? Does not the Wagner group operate globally fighting in Africa and other countries so the Kremlin has plausible deniability? Does not the Wagner group provide the muscle for Russian oligarchs who have gold and diamond mines in Africa ? Isn’t the Wagner group aligned with and provide military arms and bodies for coups and civil wars in Africa and the Central African Republic? ? Doesn’t the same Russian oligarch who “owns” Wagner also have the military contract to supply all the food to all of Russia’s military? Hasn’t Russia sent troops into member states of the Russian Federation to prevent those republics leaving the Russian Federation? Has not Putin gradually removed most of the independence and power for self determination from members of the RF? Isn’t the RF just Putin’s own colonies , his empire ? Did not Russia recently go to war with Georgia nd steel twenty percent of their land? Hasn’t Putin had four shots of the Russian AZ jab? Wasn’t the Covid scam also fully implemented in Russia by it’s Pharma working arm in arm with global Pharma and the jab mandated and the population put on ap trackers? Does not Russia have the fifth largest prison population on earth per one hundred thousand population? Isn’t the wealth disparity in Russia even worse that the US with seventy five percent of all the wealth circulating in two cities? Why is Russia so exalted and worshiped by the people on this and other channels? Biden goes to see the Saudis and our alternative press decry the association with terrorist supporting decapitators but when Putin gets to gather with them to jack up oil prices, the alternative media cheers and applauds? Double standards any one ? If you think that a Russian/China hegemony is going to be a utopia then I have a bridge to sell you . Why all this love for Russia , I just don’t feel it. Russia and Ukraine deserve each other and mirror each other , it is a war made in heaven , let them have at each other as hard and as long as they want , they might work off a bit of the hatred they have for each other.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 61 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.