Oct 252022
 


Rembrandt van Rijn Self portrait 1642

 

White House Responds To US Lawmakers’ Call For Russia Talks (RT)
Russia Warns US and UK About Ukraine’s ‘Dirty Bomb’ Plans (RT)
Russian Warning To The UN Security Council (Saker)
Ukraine Faces ‘Worst Winter In History’ – Head Of National Energy Giant (RT)
Russian Duma Speaker Compares ‘Kiev Regime’ To Al-Qaeda (RT)
The ‘War of Terror’ May Be About To Hit Europe (Escobar)
Full Demilitarization Area Around Zaporozhye NPP Impossible – Moscow (RT)
1000s of Years of Human Progress or the Donbas in Ukraine? (Cosgrove)
Potential Mass Layoffs At Twitter Could Cripple Content Moderation (ABC)
Cheney: Trump Won’t Be Allowed To Turn Jan. 6 Testimony Into ‘Circus’ (Hill)
Hunter Biden’s Laptop Documents At Least 459 Legal Violations (DW)
Recycling Plastic A ‘Failed Concept’ – Greenpeace (RT)
Chaos Is As Chaos Does (Jim Kunstler)
The Disastrous Effects of the “Zero Covid” Policy in China (Ugo Bardi)
I Hope People Can Imagine The Scale Of What Is Happening Here (Hodkinson)
Unvaccinated Children Are ‘Our Only Hope’ For Herd Immunity – Geert (ET)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biden

 

 

 

 

 

 

Call for peace talks, but only with Zelensky, who you know full well signed a decree forbidding any such talks. Then wash your hands and send more guns.

White House Responds To US Lawmakers’ Call For Russia Talks (RT)

US officials have dismissed the idea of direct talks with Moscow without Kiev’s involvement, after some 30 Democratic representatives wrote a letter urging President Joe Biden to pursue a diplomatic end to the conflict in Ukraine. “We’ve been very clear: Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday, adding that “this is a decision that President [Vladimir] Zelensky is going to have to make when it comes to any type of conversation with Russia, any type of negotiation.” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby similarly stated on Monday that the Ukrainians must be part of any future negotiations.

“We’re not going to have conversations with the Russian leadership without the Ukrainians being represented,” Kirby said, as cited by the Washington Post. “Mr. Zelensky gets to determine – because it’s his country – what success looks like and when to negotiate.” Kirby noted the US administration “appreciates [the lawmakers’] very thoughtful concerns,” while Jean-Pierre admitted she hasn’t seen the letter. Both, however, insisted that Russian President Vladimir Putin could choose to end the conflict “at any time.” In a letter to the White House on Monday, Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal (Washington) cited the “destruction” of Ukraine, the threat of nuclear war and the economic turmoil visited upon Europe as reasons to pursue a negotiated settlement.

Signed by prominent progressives including Ro Khanna (Pennsylvania), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), the letter acknowledged that the ultimate decision on when to return to the negotiating table remains Ukraine’s. However, it concluded by urging Biden to open “direct talks with Russia,” without suggesting what kind of compromises the lawmakers think Ukraine should make for peace. Ukraine’s president previously said he would never negotiate with Russia as long as President Putin is in power, and has vowed to seize four formerly Ukrainian regions that recently joined the Russian Federation, as well as Crimea, which voted to rejoin Russia in 2014.

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“..the UK “rejected Russia’s allegations that Ukraine is planning actions to escalate the conflict.”

Russia Warns US and UK About Ukraine’s ‘Dirty Bomb’ Plans (RT)

Moscow has discussed the threat of Kiev potentially using a “dirty bomb” with London and Washington at the level of the chiefs of the General Staff, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday. The Russian chief of defense, General Valery Gerasimov, raised his country’s concerns in a phone call with US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, after having a similar conversation with his British counterpart, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin. The Pentagon only mentioned that the two generals discussed “several security-related issues of concern” without providing any further details. It was the first such conversation between Gerasimov and Milley since May.

The British Defence Ministry said the phone call between Radakin and Gerasimov took place “at the request of the Russian Ministry of Defense,” adding that the UK “rejected Russia’s allegations that Ukraine is planning actions to escalate the conflict.” Radakin also “restated the UK’s enduring support for Ukraine,” the ministry’s statement added. London also agreed it was important to keep communication channels with Moscow open to “manage the risk of miscalculation and to facilitate de-escalation.” The developments came a day after Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu raised similar concerns in phone calls with the defense chiefs of the US, UK, and France. Moscow has been warning Western nations about Kiev’s alleged plans to use a “dirty bomb” to frame Russia for quite some time. The West, however, has remained largely dismissive of such warnings.

Earlier on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Kiev wants to frame Moscow as a “nuclear terrorist” by accusing it of using weapons of mass destruction and thus potentially launching a “powerful anti-Russia campaign.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also stated that the West’s disbelief in this scenario does not make the threat any less pressing. Kiev has denied Moscow’s allegations. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky also said that the only side capable of launching an attack using nukes is Russia itself. Meanwhile, the UN called on all sides of the conflict to show restraint. Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told a briefing on Monday that all parties should “avoid” any actions that could lead to miscalculation or further escalation of the already devastating conflict.

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“.. this situation did not suit the West and thus caused a genuine hysterics among our Western “colleagues..”

Russian Warning To The UN Security Council (Saker)

Since during the eight years of bitter experience of the inhabitants of Donbass we know well, what the Kiev regime is capable of, a decision was made to cool down the militant ardour of the arrogant Kiev terrorists. With precision-guided missiles strikes and UAVs of Russian manufacture, were destroyed a large number of military installations, and also infrastructure facilities, [reducing] the military capabilities and undermining potentials of Zelensky’s repressive regime. Of course, this situation did not suit the West and thus caused a genuine hysterics among our Western “colleagues”, which we can observe in all its glory expressed during today’s meeting.

Naturally, as before, they do not want to see the truth and acknowledge that the civilian targets were hit and were damaged only in those cases when the drones were shot down near the targets by the Ukrainian territorial defense .. and because of that had deviated from the original course. Or the [damage happened] when civilian targets were hit by the Ukrainian air-defense missiles, which were not capable of Intercepting their targets. There are plenty of such cases, including recorded on video. Anyone who wants to, can watch them on the Internet. Right now Ukraine and its Western patrons are trying to spin another fake about the alleged deliveries to Russia of the Iranian UAVs, in violation of the UN Security Council Resolution No. 2231.

We reject any such attempts to draw the UN Secretariat into this unscrupulous game. An example of this is the letter distributed in the Security Council today by Germany, France and the UK with a de facto petition to the UN Secretariat to violate the article 100 of the UN charter and mandate, prescribed in the note of the President UN Security Council S/2016/44 of 16 January, 2016. The US went even further and in their letter directly demanded from the Secretariat to conduct an investigation that the Secretariat is not authorized to open. This is an egregious situation and we submitted our legal assessments in our response letter, which was circulated before this session. We are waiting for the Secretariat to fully confirm that it does not intend to go along with the violation of the UN charter [demanded] by these Westerners’ instructions, and will not conduct any such “investigation”.

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“We expect constant power outages and problems with heating..”

Ukraine Faces ‘Worst Winter In History’ – Head Of National Energy Giant (RT)

Ukraine is facing its harshest winter, which will be marked by ongoing blackouts, Yuri Vitrenko, the head of the state-owned energy giant Naftogaz, has said. In an interview with German outlet Handelsblatt, Vitrenko explained that “about 40% of the power generation plants were destroyed” by recent Russian airstrikes. “It will be the worst winter in our history. We expect constant power outages and problems with heating,” Vitrenko said in the interview published on Monday, adding that Moscow has also hit Ukrainian refineries. Ukraine is preparing for winter blackouts, the Naftogaz boss said, admitting that “it is impossible to 100% prevent problems” and the country therefore needs help from its partners.

In an interview with The Guardian in late August, long before Russia launched its offensive against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, Vitrenko admitted that without Western financial support, Ukraine would “lack gas” and, consequently, might see its power system going down. In September, the Naftogaz boss urged Ukrainians to stock up on blankets and warm clothes, noting that this year’s heating season will start later and end earlier, while winter temperatures in apartments will be set at 17-18 degrees Celsius (62-64 degrees Fahrenheit), four degrees below the standard temperature. The ongoing shelling of Ukrainian infrastructure by Moscow prompted Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky last week to ask his compatriots to ease pressure on the struggling energy system by limiting their use of electricity between 5 and 11 pm.

On Sunday, he also asked the local authorities “to consume electricity very consciously” and emphasized that “this is not the right time for bright shop windows and signs.” Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a shift in the military offensive in Ukraine on October 10, with Moscow’s forces launching massive long-range missile strikes on Ukrainian military, communication, and energy facilities. He accused Kiev of masterminding several “terrorist attacks” on Russian infrastructure, including the Crimean Bridge bombing attack.

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“..the US president and the heads of European countries are becoming the sponsors and accomplices in nuclear terrorism..”

Russian Duma Speaker Compares ‘Kiev Regime’ To Al-Qaeda (RT)

The Ukrainian government employs the same tactics as Al-Qaeda in its conflict with Moscow, Vyacheslav Volodin, the head of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, said on Monday. Writing on his Telegram channel, Volodin compared Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to Osama Bin Laden, the leader of the Islamist group behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US in 2001. “Washington released information 20 years ago that Al-Qaeda terrorists led by Bin Laden got access to radioactive materials and were planning to make a ‘dirty bomb,’” he said. “The threat of using such a bomb in the US and Europe had existed until Bin Laden was killed in 2011.” Volodin claimed that Kiev had instructed its nuclear scientists to make a ‘dirty bomb’, while its forces shell the critical infrastructure of the Zaporozhye and Kursk nuclear power plants.


“Through financial and military aid to Zelensky’s regime, the US president and the heads of European countries are becoming the sponsors and accomplices in nuclear terrorism,” Volodin wrote. The comments came after Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu warned his British and French counterparts on Sunday about “a potential Ukrainian provocation” involving a ‘dirty bomb’. Zelensky dismissed the allegations and accused Moscow of threatening the world with nuclear weapons. “If Russia alleges that Ukraine is preparing something, it means only one thing: that Russia itself is preparing it,” Zelensky said on Sunday. Moscow and Kiev have accused each other of shelling the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which was seized by Russian troops after Moscow launched its military operation in the neighboring country. Zaporozhye Region voted in September to leave Ukraine and has since been admitted into Russia.

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“Russia is working to eventually decommission all those US-controlled international organizations..”

The ‘War of Terror’ May Be About To Hit Europe (Escobar)

[..] the arrival of General Winter in Europe portends a socio-economic descent into a maelstrom of darkness – unimaginable only a few months ago in the supposedly “garden” of humanity, so far away from the rumbles across the “jungle.”Well, from now on barbarism begins at home. And Europeans should thank the American “ally” for it, skillfully manipulating fearful, vassalized EU elites. Way more dangerous though is a specter that very few are able to identify: the imminent Syrianization of Europe. That will be a direct consequence of the NATO debacle in Ukraine. From an imperial perspective, the prospects in the Ukrainian battlefield are gloomy. Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO) has seamlessly morphed into a Counter-Terror Operation (CTO): Moscow now openly characterizes Kiev as a terrorist regime.

The pain dial is incrementally going up, with surgical strikes against Ukrainian power/electricity infrastructure about to totally cripple Kiev’s economy and its military. And by December, there’s the arrival on the front lines and in the rear of a properly trained and highly motivated partial mobilization contingent. The only question concerns the timetable. Moscow is now in the process of slowly but surely decapitating the Kiev proxy, and ultimately smashing NATO “unity.” The process of torturing the EU economy is relentless. And the real world outside of the collective West – the Global South – is with Russia, from Africa and Latin America to West Asia and even sections of the EU.

It is Moscow – and significantly not Beijing – that is tearing apart the hegemon-coined “rules-based international order,” supported by its natural resources, the provision of food and reliable security. And in coordination with China, Iran and major Eurasian players, Russia is working to eventually decommission all those US-controlled international organizations – as the Global South becomes virtually immune to the spread of NATO psyops.

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The plant was fine until Ukraine started targeting it.

Full Demilitarization Area Around Zaporozhye NPP Impossible – Moscow (RT)

Russia has ruled out complete demilitarization of the area around the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), but would support some kind of arrangement to ensure its safety, a senior Russian diplomat has said. “An agreement about demilitarization is impossible in principle. We cannot keep the station safe without guarding it,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told the newspaper Izvestia on the sidelines of an international seminar on the prevention of nuclear war in Moscow. “Zone of protection is a different idea, and its parameters are being discussed,” he noted, referring to Russian contacts with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in remarks published on Monday.

Moscow is engaged with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and has observers from the UN nuclear watchdog stationed at the facility, Ryabkov said, adding that Russia has “nothing to hide.” The Zaporozhye NPP has been under Russian control since the early stages of the military operation in Ukraine. Kiev and Moscow accused each other of shelling the station on multiple occasions. Ukraine also claimed that Russia deployed heavy weapons at the site and used them to attack Ukrainian troops. Russia took over formal responsibility for the station earlier this month, after Zaporozhye Region voted in a referendum to split with Kiev and become part of Russia.

The IAEA, however, still refers to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe as Ukrainian. The agency stressed “the need to establish a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the facility, following frequent shelling at or near the plant in recent months,” in its latest briefing on the situation. Both Russia and Ukraine expressed discontent with the IAEA’s refusal to say who is responsible for the shelling of the plant. Speaking to Argentinian media last week, Grossi said his goal was to identify “the lowest common denominator” between the two nations and to ensure the physical safety of the nuclear site. He chose to ignore the mutual accusations, as taking “a militant or critical position” would have been detrimental to that goal, he explained in an interview with La Nacion newspaper.

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“..the idea that Russia and the US will just fight an infantry war and cordially accept the results is ridicu-fucking-lous..”

1000s of Years of Human Progress or the Donbas in Ukraine? (Cosgrove)

Neocons: WTF are you thinking? There is no winning scenario for the US on the path we are currently on. If Crimea is in jeopardy (a region controlled by Russia for almost a decade which the citizens overwhelmingly support), Putin will nuke Ukraine. It’s a lose-lose for the US from there as we can either escalate and destroy the world or not and appear weak. Don’t think Putin will nuke? According to Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, former nuclear planner for Rand Corporation with personal access to Nixon, stated that the former President was dangerously close to going nuclear on Vietnam. In an interview for Mint Press News, he discusses Nixon’s plan to use nuclear blackmail to end the war quickly. “‘There was pressure to make the war larger’” if the offer was rejected, the whistleblower noted, and ‘nuclear targets were picked.’”

If Vietnam, a country nearly 8,000 miles from the continental US, was enough of a headache that Nixon nearly pushed the button… what do you think Putin is thinking right now with a war on his border and having just resorted to conscription? So stop this NATO theatre near the border. Putin does not want to invade NATO and take over Europe (let alone all of Ukraine). And if the plan is to deploy these troops in the event that a nuke is used (as many have advocated for), the idea that Russia and the US will just fight an infantry war and cordially accept the results is ridicu-fucking-lous.

The risk-reward of our military support for Ukraine has reached unfathomable levels of insanity. By the State Department’s own analysis, there are no material differences in human rights protections between the governments of Ukraine and Russia. Who exactly are we helping by using Ukraine as our military sandbox? Maybe Zelensky and a few other lucky oligarchs, but certainly not the Ukrainians. Friday saw talks between the US and Russia for the first time since May. This is somewhat reassuring. Regardless… I’m officially a single issue voter: will you or will you not vote to send money/weapons to Ukraine? I’d vote for fucking AOC if she vowed to not give another dime to Ukraine and push for a peace settlement. I’d rather be alive in a genderless socialist dystopia than not at all.

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The MSM is fully myopic. They can be, because they made their audience myopic. For all of them, free speech now equals harassment.

Potential Mass Layoffs At Twitter Could Cripple Content Moderation (ABC)

Over the course of a monthslong bid to purchase Twitter, Elon Musk has signaled major changes at the platform. As Musk stands poised to acquire the company in the coming weeks, the transformation appears even more far-reaching than some anticipated. In discussions about his plans for the company, in recent months, Musk talked about potential mass layoffs that would reduce the staff by 75%, the Washington Post reported. While details of the potential layoffs remain limited, the move could compromise the platform’s capacity to police false or harmful content, with ramifications that extend to social issues like election integrity, experts told ABC News. The experience of a typical user could change significantly, they added, noting the possible rise of harassment and other forms of corrosive discourse.

Even if Musk’s Twitter deal does not come to fruition, the company’s current management has reportedly planned to cut its payroll by $800 million by the end of next year, the Post reported. A spokesperson for Twitter declined to comment on the report of layoffs but confirmed to ABC News the existence of a company memo to employees obtained by Bloomberg News. “We do not have any confirmation of the buyer’s plans following close and recommend not following rumors or leaked documents but rather wait for facts from us and the buyer directly,” the memo by Twitter General Counsel Sean Edgett said. Speaking at a Twitter all-hands meeting shortly in June, Musk did not rule out downsizing if he were to acquire the company. “Anyone who is a significant contributor should have nothing to worry about,” Musk reportedly told employees, according to tweets from Bloomberg reporter Kurt Wagner.

Cuts to the content moderation workforce would align with statements made by Musk in recent months about his commitment to the principle of free speech, suggesting that Twitter should permit all speech that stops short of violating the law, the experts said. “Content moderation will be a lot harder without people doing content moderation,” Zeve Sanderson, the executive director at New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics, told ABC News. “If there is more harassment and other forms of toxic speech, if there is more misinformation and disinformation, then people’s experience on the platform is going to be really different,” he added.

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Because: Whose circus is it anyway? It’s OUR circus.

Cheney: Trump Won’t Be Allowed To Turn Jan. 6 Testimony Into ‘Circus’ (Hill)

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Sunday said the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will not allow former President Trump to turn his testimony to the panel into a “circus.” Cheney told moderator Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the committee would treat any deposition with the former president with “great seriousness.” “We are going to proceed in terms of the questioning of the former president under oath,” Cheney, one of two Republicans on the panel, said. “It may take multiple days, and it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline and seriousness that it deserves.”


“He’s not going to turn this into a circus. This isn’t going to be first debate against [President] Biden and the circus and the food fight that became,” the lawmaker added. The House committee, which wrapped up its final hearing on the Jan. 6 attack this month, unanimously voted to subpoena Trump before it formally issued a subpoena to the former president. Lawmakers are probing 19 areas of interest, including many covered during the series of hearings the committee held over the summer, in the subpoena. They include potential communications seeking to evaluate former Vice President Mike Pence’s role in certifying the 2020 election as well as efforts to communicate with state lawmakers, election officials and leaders at the Justice Department about the 2020 election.

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“We don’t want to hear that Republicans need another year to do an investigation. I’ve done that here.”

Hunter Biden’s Laptop Documents At Least 459 Legal Violations (DW)

A year-long exploration of Hunter Biden’s laptop has yielded a 630-page report that its authors say document 459 violations of state and federal laws and regulations by President Joe Biden’s son and his business partners. Marco Polo, a nonprofit formed by a one-time aide to former President Trump to enable a team of cyber gumshoes to take a deep dive into the laptop that the crack-addled Biden left at a Delaware repair store, claims the report is a road map for local, state, or federal prosecutors to pursue charges. The group also sent its report to each member of Congress. The timing of the report’s release, coming two weeks before the midterm elections, has a certain symmetry to the laptop’s initial introduction to the public.

In 2020, days before the election, the New York Post published news of the laptop’s existence, as well as bombshells from it, but social media suppressed the story after the FBI had warned companies of so-called misinformation. This time around, the timing is similar, but other factors are reversed. Legacy outlets have acknowledged that the laptop’s files are authentic, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey admitted that censoring the laptop was a mistake, and the social media platform is being sold to free-speech advocate Elon Musk. The team put together by Garrett Ziegler, Marco Polo’s 26-year-old founder, has mined the laptop with digital savvy, and produced a thorough report that is anything but vague or superficial, weighing in at 1 gigabyte because of the number of screenshots from the laptop.

“I’ve been focusing on this for 13 months,” Ziegler told The Daily Wire. “It was really a thing of necessity. I recognized how rich the material was. It requires utter focus. It is so hard to write something comprehensive about it and do anything else on the side.” “There’s been some phenomenal writing so far on the sex and degeneracy,” he added, but “The focus of the report is on crimes … I had a compulsion to log every crime, even the state-level statutes. The mission is simple: Hold Republicans’ feet to the fire. We don’t want to hear that Republicans need another year to do an investigation. I’ve done that here.” The report, which reviewed the laptop’s emails, videos, calendar items, photographs, phone records, financial documents and more, but also provided context and explanation, serves as a “Rosetta Stone of white- and blue-collar crime under the patina of ‘the Delaware Way,’” the report says.

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“Since peaking at 9.5% in 2014, recycling rates have been steadily decreasing..”

Recycling Plastic A ‘Failed Concept’ – Greenpeace (RT)

Plastic recycling has turned out to be a “failed concept” used by global corporations as a “smokescreen,” Greenpeace USA has said, urging companies to focus on abandoning single-use plastic. In a report titled ‘Circular Claims Fall Flat Again’ and released on Monday, the environmental organization stated that of 51 million tons of plastic waste generated by US households in 2021, only 2.4 million tons, or 5%, were recycled. “After more than 30 years, it is time to accept that plastic recycling is a failed concept. Unlike with paper or metals, there are two insurmountable barriers that prevent plastic recycling from ever working at scale: toxicity and economics,” Greenpeace said.

Due to its toxicity, plastic cannot be recycled back into new food-grade plastic products, the organization explained, adding that “the flood of 400 million tons/year of cheap new plastic production kills the business case for large-scale investment in plastic recycling.” The situation is further aggravated by the high costs and complexity of the recycling process, given that different plastics have different characteristics and thus must be treated differently. But, most importantly, the organization said, “thousands of types of synthetic plastic materials produced are fundamentally not recyclable.” Since peaking at 9.5% in 2014, recycling rates have been steadily decreasing, especially since China ceased accepting Western plastic waste in 2018, the report states.

Therefore, Greenpeace urged companies to stop using the “false path” of plastic recycling as “a smokescreen to divert attention from the systemic changes that are needed.” “Instead of continuing on this false path, companies in the US and around the world must urgently phase out single-use plastics by replacing their packaging with reuse and refill systems and offering packaging-free products,” it said. Greenpeace USA senior plastics campaigner Lisa Ramsden told AFP that corporations such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé and Unilever are some of those that have been promoting recycling for decades but have “shirked all responsibility” for the effectiveness of the process.

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America has become Forrest Gump-istan.

Chaos Is As Chaos Does (Jim Kunstler)

Then there’s us, Crazyland, formerly known as the USA, floating the possibility of a nuclear missile exchange, as if that were any kind of workable answer to the completely unnecessary war we instigated in the crossroads of Eurasia. Now, the word is out that a 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagles” strike force is assembling in Romania, next door to Ukraine, for some supposed incursion into the war zone — where there would be a fair chance of them getting slaughtered. Are you serious, Lloyd Austin and Mark Milley, or is this just some new deranged Woke vaudeville act in your continuing effort to humiliate the US Armed Forces?

Factor in, of course, the fast-approaching midterm election, which seems to have driven the “Joe Biden” regime and its Party of Chaos into a fugue of extreme desperation as they face a possibly massive repudiation at the polls that will put them out of business for many election cycles to come — if not permanently — and bring an end to the Wokester-Jacobin freak show. How the Democratic Party became hostage to the worst array of political ideas ever assembled remains a profound mystery. How do they persist supporting a Covid “vaccine” campaign that is now obviously false and dangerous? Is it simply an inability to acknowledge a terrible mistake? Or is it — as things seem — something darker, a deliberate effort to inflict harm on the American people? Kind of looks that way.

Several states quickly and loudly opted out of “vaccine” mandates for schools since the CDC’s advisory committee’s bizarre 15 to 0 vote to include the janky mRNA shots on the childhood “schedule.” How did “JB” & Company imagine that a wide-open border along with big cash gifts to border-jumpers was going to play with the economically sore-beset public? Who imagined that drag queens grinding their junk in children’s faces was a winning ploy? Who told them that Americans would approve of turning the FBI into a Gestapo, barging into politically-targeted households with SWAT teams before dawn? How did they forget that there is a first amendment to the constitution that forbids the government to interfere with freedom of speech? Who is actually behind this insanity?

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“Zero Covid Hell”

The Disastrous Effects of the “Zero Covid” Policy in China (Ugo Bardi)

“Eugenic and cultural superiority” Really? Actually, it is not surprising that people, more or less everywhere, see themselves as the best people in the world. The West has a century old tradition of this idea, well expressed by Rudyard Kipling as the “White Man’s Burden.” But I found it hard to believe that the Chinese, intelligent as they are, would not realize the mess in which they find themselves with their insistence on evidently ineffective “Zero Covid” policies. You may have read about people locked shut in their apartments, streets closed by barbed wire, universal masking everywhere, forced testing and vaccination, household pets exterminated, and much more. It is a situation that Eugyppius correctly described as “Zero Covid Hell”. Can’t the Chinese realize that they are being bullied by a government that’s thinking only of its own survival?

And yet, it turns out that Chuck was right, as it is often the case. I realized that all of a sudden, a few days ago, while I was listening to the talk of a Chinese colleague at an online conference. One of the things she said was that the cultural superiority of China over the West is demonstrated by the willingness of Chinese citizens to wear face masks all the time. That doesn’t happen, she said, with the unruly Westerners, who refuse to act in harmony with each other and wear such a simple and completely harmless device as a face mask. She didn’t mention the genetic superiority of the Chinese, but it was just a small step to get there from what she said.

One of those moments in which you feel your painstakingly assembled worldview crumbling around you. Did she really say that? After the conference, I contacted her separately. I asked her if she was sure that face masks are harmless. And I sent to her a link to a peer-reviewed paper showing the many negative effects of masks on health. She answered me very politely, thanking me for the link, and saying that face masks are basically harmless; hence they have to be worn all the time in public. End of the discussion.

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“20 million dead by the injection,

2.2 billion injured …”

I Hope People Can Imagine The Scale Of What Is Happening Here (Hodkinson)

“20 million dead by the injection,

2.2 billion injured …” “I hope people can imagine the extent of what is happening here.

An unimaginable slaughter that is not yet over, because this number is the current estimate first.

It does not include future deaths of a similar kind that will come to you!”

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Immune escape.

Unvaccinated Children Are ‘Our Only Hope’ For Herd Immunity – Geert (ET)

For nearly two years, vaccine expert and virologist Geert Vanden Bossche has been on a mission to raise awareness of why healthy children should not receive COVID-19 vaccines. Vanden Bossche, who has 30 years of experience in the vaccine industry, claims that it is primarily the unvaccinated children and adults who can generate herd immunity.“The children are our only hope still, to generate herd immunity,” Vanden Bossche told The Epoch Times. “And herd immunity means, thanks to their natural immunity, they can kill the virus, they can sterilize the virus.” It is only herd immunity that “will be able, at the population level, to dramatically reduce infectious pressure and to tame the pandemic so that it can transition into an endemic phase,” he added, since the “vaccines cannot do this.


“On the contrary, the vaccines lead to the breeding of more and more infectious variants, which is enhancing the infectious pressure in the population.”Herd immunity is defined as when a percentage of the population becomes immune to a disease—either through a previous infection or vaccination—which acts to stop or slow down the spread. Yet, vaccines have never significantly contributed to ending influenza pandemics in the past. The virus in each pandemic had largely run its course and became endemic. The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1 virus, began in March 1918 and ended in the summer of 1919 without the use of any vaccines. The 1957 Asian flu (H2N2) pandemic ended in 1958 with limited use of the flu vaccine. And in both the 1968 H3N2 and 2009 H1N1 pandemics, the pandemic had already reached its peak by the time the vaccines were ready, so demand for the vaccines declined.

The COVID-19 pandemic is the first time that mass vaccination is being done in the middle of a pandemic. According to Vanden Bossche, mass vaccination with vaccines cannot prevent infection during a pandemic when there is high infection pressure because it leads to immune escape, a phenomenon where a virus can escape the host’s immune system. The late Nobel laureate and virologist Luc Montagnier was also against vaccinating the entire population during a pandemic. In May 2021, he called the mass vaccination program “a huge scientific error” and that the “history books will show that it is the vaccination that is creating the variants.” Supporters of vaccination allege that the vaccines do not create more variants, arguing that the virus has mutated several times prior to the vaccine roll out in December 2020 and that the benefits of the vaccines outweigh the risks. Vanden Bossche disagrees.


He said that while variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can occur naturally, it is the COVID-19 injections that are driving the process. The most important reason why children should not receive a COVID-19 vaccine is to protect their innate immune system from being compromised, according to Vanden Bossche. The innate immune system is the body’s first line of defense against foreign pathogens. Children are “equipped with a special kind of antibodies that we call innate antibodies,” Vanden Bossche said in a video this summer, which “only lasts for some time during childhood and after that they disappear.” “These innate antibodies have an incredibly important function because they will help the child to kick off its own immune system,” he said, adding that these antibodies may be able to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 and many other viruses that are encountered.

Marik
https://twitter.com/i/status/1584692426790211586

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Oborne

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle October 25 2022

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  • #119244

    Rembrandt van Rijn Self portrait 1642   • White House Responds To US Lawmakers’ Call For Russia Talks (RT) • Russia Warns US and UK About Ukraine
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle October 25 2022]

    #119245
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Rembrandt van Rijn Self portrait 1642

    The master masters…

    #119246
    Germ
    Participant

    Death Vaxx injury hearing:

    Sir Christopher Chope’s full remarks at Westminster Hall – 24.10.22:
    Complete UK media blackout

    https://t.me/robinmg/24250

    #119249
    Redneck
    Participant

    The ‘War of Terror’ May Be About To Hit Europe (Escobar)
    I assume that the readers of TAE know that Escobar is employed directly by the Chinese Communist Party
    as a writer for The Global Times based in Hong Kong , the CCP’s major English speaking propaganda platform?
    “Fuck off Australia, stick to killing your own people with a few more death jabs.”
    We are waiting for Putin to send us more of that good Russian goo , that is if Putin hasn’t taken it all himself.
    The idea that Russia is prolonging the war as a tactical advantage is so dumb , illogical that is . If Putin wanted to prolong the war they would just dig in , create a really strong defensive line bring in the artillery and hold it. Why would you retreat from territory it took months of combat with heavy cost in time , money and treasure to take knowing you are going to have to do it all over again? That is nonsensical.
    The fact is that the Russians do not have the capability to hold the line and all this talk of 5D chess is just BS conjured up to mask the truth , it is the sinking of the Kursk again. Russian military dickheads are making excuses for their failings. Remember the West had to come in and save the day then , that the Navy lied to the Russian people and Putin to cover their own arses?….for months they claimed the sinking was the result of a collision with a US sub? How dumb would you be to think that a US sub could sail away from a collision that registers in Norway as 3.5 on the Richter scale and then keep on telling the Russian people that BS for months after the event when every one already knew it was BS?

    Meanwhile the Chinx have blown a real estate bubble that would make Wall st . blush.

    #119250
    Redneck
    Participant


    #119251
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Some people think Russia should go all in. Empty out Russia, use the bombs, finish off Kiev in a day.

    …While knowing NATO is waiting for them. Waiting for them to be depleted, waiting to be overextended, waiting for any escalation that can mobilize NATO and Western Europe.

    If they don’t do this, but keep most of their arms to defend their OWN country, sending only 1/3 of the numbers that the Ukrainian army has, then they’re failures for being too slow and not winning enough. …Although the winning already has revealed NATO’s hand and their intent.

    Okay, well, I guess they’re all useless weaklings then, fighting Ukraine with 1/3 the recommended forces just cause they can’t count to ten. No, I’ll stick with my present theory, thanks. Yeah it sucks to be advancing when the defenders outnumber you 3:1 AND the home field advantage is commonly considered 3:1. So 6:1 against. With 1,000km front. And wars are the creators of phrases “SNAFU”, “FUBAR”, and “BOHICA.” — If things are going well, the enemy isn’t doing their job. With the most advanced satellites ever created on planet earth reporting on you.

    No, things are going as well as can be expected. Maybe Ukraine held out a little longer, but for what gain? Fewer men and fewer countrymen for generations? Oh well. And what’s the other side? Kiev’s going to occupy Moscow? Where’s this going? A country the size of France thinks they can occupy 12 time zones?

    “30 House Dems Urge Dramatic Shift in Biden’s Ukraine Policy: ‘Get Serious about Diplomacy or Risk Nuclear Miscalculation’”

    Wha Wha Wha Wha? Watching, ‘cause surely this can’t be real. There is no anti-war alarm. There are no anti-war protests. What’s the point? We’re not in a democracy, and didn’t work the last 30 years. 50 years, since Vietnam? Can see how nations are shoved into war if they burrow long enough. And history will report “we the people didn’t care.” No, but historians are brown-nosers who’ll believe anything the Government PR releases say. We did care, but aren’t wasting our time either.

    “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,”

    So those 30 Congressmen seem to think the U.S. is running the war or they would ask Ze and not Biden. I guess those Congressmen don’t know what they’re talking about except Biden said “Support the war” “We’re in the war” “We’ll support the war to the end” and sent $50B War dollars there, no questions asked.

    But: Silly Russia! We’re not in the war that the President and Congress say we’re in! When you’re bombed, it’s them, not us!

    Oh and also: They sent a strongly-worded letter? Uh-huh. Oh no, Karen, whatever shall we do? They spoke to the manager.

    …Apparently we’re now buying Russian oil in bulk. Oh wait: it’s okay since they rebranded it “Chinese” oil. …Who we are also at war with. Why? Because Brandon already stole the multi-billion dollar SPR kitty and blew it on election rigging. So he’s both stealing, AND election tampering AND giving aid and comfort to the enemy. No charges. Give Russia and China all the money you want, THEN give Ukraine and Taiwan all the money you want. …Because it’s not their money. It’s ours. And no price it too high to pay when somebody else is footing the bill.

    “Israel Destroys Iranian Drone-Making Plant in Syria”

    …But it’s not an act of war when WE do it. Surely Iran should blow up a Jerusalem pharmaceutical plant just to be fair, right?

    Glad you covered the “Biden Passed the Student Loan Bill” quote. That’s just…beyond. And it’s jsut like his lifetime of plagiarism and lies: somehow nobody cares. It’s always okay when he does it and gets the most black men imprisoned in the history of the world.

    Gas: that is not a stable chart. Are there derivatives attached to these markets? Because it’s hard to see how somebody doesn’t go under and take a cross-default chain with them. Like Credit Suisse? But never DeutscheBank, well known to be the largest and worst shape, also in the direct center of both bankruptcies and energy markets. With no Fed swapline. No, never. This is fine. Everything’s fine.

    ““..the UK “rejected Russia’s allegations that Ukraine is planning actions to escalate the conflict.”

    Shoigu would not have called if he didn’t have the names and addresses of the people in the plan. And their MI6 connections. So, do we get to hear any of it? Nope. They just “rejected it”. Trust your government’s war department: when have they ever lied? Yellowcake, mushroom clouds, WMD and ties to al-Qaeda, they’ll greet us with flowers, dominoes, Agent Orange is safe as water, remember the Maine, the Indians attacked us, and we never cracked the Japanese code in the Pacific.

    “Ukraine is facing its harshest winter,”

    This seems unlikely unless they’re putting babies in pots. However, I have to say that was back when population was low and everyone collected firewood, which is no longer true. So lacking even the infrastructure and tradition…that’s pretty bad. What do you do, ship and build 12 million kachelofens at 500 kilos a piece? So Europe has granted refugee status to all 43 million Ukrainians, right? Surely they have a better claim than a 5 million migrants that crossed 10 safe countries but thought the job prospects were better in Denmark than India.

    I could say the same about pot-bellied stoves here. Most places we have enough wood for a township lying around in old lots and roadsides, unused, but there’s no social or physical mechanism to use it. Nor can there be when U.S. law is broken.

    “The Ukrainian government employs the same tactics as Al-Qaeda in its conflict with Moscow,”

    Normally this is over the top. State entities are not the same as non-state entities, and yes, governments are foundationally a local mafia and protection racket from the get-go. But in this case, both Ukie and Al-Q are expressly run by the same people: Langley. The guys who just nuked Germany. Openly. In fact, better than nuked them, via energy. And made them shut up about it, too.

    “If Russia alleges that Ukraine is preparing something, it means only one thing: that Russia itself is preparing it,” Zelensky said”

    Wow, you guys are geniuses! “I am rubber, you are glue…” Um, back in the real world, we provide a thing called “evidence”? To support your allegations? Anyone remember that? It’s written into every news department, every embassy, and every court of law worldwide. No? Well, carry on then: we haven’t needed evidence in 50 years and aren’t going to start now.

    We cannot keep the station safe without guarding it,”

    Sure you can! That’s the same argument we have here about outlawing guns! If all the good people are unarmed, all the bad people will suddenly become good and not like violence anymore! You can see we believe it since we’re disarming our own military right now!

    ““…the idea that Russia and the US will just fight an infantry war and cordially accept the results is ridicu-fucking-lous..”

    But everyone told me – Petreaus, Graham, Senators, CIA directors, generals – that we can just nuke the Russian Army and they’ll just sit around and take it? What fresh hell is this? And we really REALLY are a-gonna win with a 10,000 mile, trans-ocean supply chain and zero manufacturing against Russia with a 0 mile supply chain and open mines and factories. “Always fight your wars across two continents at the end of a 10,000 mile supply chain,” –Lao Tsu.

    “I’d vote for fucking AOC if she vowed to not give another dime to Ukraine and push for a peace settlement.”

    She already did promise that. Then she already lied and voted for Ukraine anyway. Then cried “victim”, “Color”, “women”, “feared for my life” when her district yelled at her about it.

    “ Potential Mass Layoffs At Twitter Could Cripple Content Moderation (ABC)”

    Oh no: people might speak and hear things. Whatever shall we do? Surely we must expend all the energy in the country stopping people from existing as people.

    “Cheney: Trump Won’t Be Allowed to Turn Jan. 6 Testimony into ‘Circus’ (Hill)”

    Liz is the gift that keeps on giving, isn’t she? Never stop. The DNC funds all our campaigns, in huge amounts. Surely we’re funding hers, right?

    “Hunter Biden’s Laptop Documents at Least 459 Legal Violations (DW) “

    If anyone had doubts that the law only applies to the little people, us.

    Plastic recycling has turned out to be a “failed concept” used by global corporations as a “smokescreen,”

    As us cynics said at the time. Greenpeace and others had gotten the edge on pollution, so corporations supported “recycling” therefore, all their useless consumerism and quadruple packaging – now octouple packaging thanks to Amazon – would be YOUR FAULT. You smelly consumers who didn’t recycle like slave-harvesting Coke and Foxconn told you to! “Do What You’re Told!!!” …Worked like a charm.

    …Of course, here, Greenpeace only notices FORTY YEARS after they’ve been scammed. I’m sorry, Greenpeace: too soon? The news on recycle rates came in ONE YEAR after broad recycling began. We’ve known every year since then. Still consumering. Still quadruple packaging. Still not re-using, jars or coke bottles.

    And if you think plastic is bad, try glass: it takes much more energy to re-cast it. Here’s the problem though: people have to be mature and responsible and not poison every bottle before returning it for refill. And we are not (social) agreement capable.

    “It’s hard to escape the awful feeling that Western Civ has a death wish”

    Yes. They are #AntiLogos. The opposite of #Logos is their god. The opposite of the “Way, the Truth, and the Light.” Therefore they are anti-Logic, anti-Reality, anti-Honesty, anti-Practical, and anti-Life. This is not hyperbole or slander, this is literal and accurate truth. They HAVE a death wish. They ARE Anti-Life. Abort your latest baby today! Kill 9 and the 10th is free! …What sort of people or culture think, feel and behave this way? One with a death wish, that worships and elevates holidays of death, fear, horror, and darkness like Halloween as their biggest day of the year.

    And on Kunstler’s article, Yes, the Bank of England immediately attacked the Prime Minister. By attacking Britain as a country, the British currency, and the people of Britain themselves. And they won, so they put in the head of Goldman Sachs for themselves. Not even trying to hide it: Goldman Sachs now runs England. Any questions?

    “I Hope People Can Imagine the Scale of What Is Happening Here (Hodkinson)”

    Nope. Zero recognition here in these parts. They could kill 5-10x as many without alarm, I guess.

    “La Nina Transforms Australian Desert Into Wetlands” Well that can’t be right. Climate Change is always a wind that blows nobody any good. There can be no positives at all. That’s Science. Not bias and propaganda a bit. Must. Stop. The Green. Don’t worry: if there are a few too many raindrops where the deserts are greening, they’ll complain and call disaster, we’re all gonna die.

    “CNN says Reduce pets”

    CNN also says if you want more food, get rid of cows. And be sure to make those varieties go extinct while you’re at it. When you’re #AntiLogos, cows are the #Opposite of food. So if you want #Life, choose #Death!

    #119252
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Wow; Dr. D’s rant wore me out…crazyland/wonderland; what a time to be…I’m so happy to be gone from that sphere of the world…

    Dr. D Rich…don’t give up; there are places to be found…

    #119253
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “The Moorish invention that tamed Spain’s mountains”

    https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221011-the-moorish-invention-that-tamed-spains-mountains

    We must never install one of these. We must, must curse BOTH the rains, AND the droughts, and then God thereafter. If you have one of these where you live, ignore it and pretend all the landscape around you is natural. Never get a wooden stick and a pair of sandals and make one.

    #119254
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Signed by prominent progressives including Ro Khanna (Pennsylvania), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), the letter acknowledged that the ultimate decision on when to return to the negotiating table remains Ukraine’s.

    Yeah, this sort of rational action tends to happen when the polls come in and your seat is looking tenuous near election time. Don’t worry, they will get back to fucking you over once you vote them back in office.

    #119255
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Self delusion. Okay, I should write this sober, but what the hell.

    My wife and I are staying in Penghu, an island in the Taiwan Strait. We are staying with a boat captain who has a few B&Bs. It is the off season, the B&B has no other paying guests, it is very windy (we are here to windsurf, so that is good), and he has a lot of his mates staying for free. They are all boat captains, they all own their own boats, apart from one guy who is a business man, owns a machine tool company on the main Taiwan island, he’s worth a ton of cash, and he is taking the boat captain exams so that he can go fishing, he is going to the local school. The B&B owner is a senior, respected guy in town.

    They are the most welcoming people you could ever meet. The boss insists that every night we all eat together, on his tab in his dining room. We always eat loads of fish. We have been down the docks on a few mornings to select fish as the boats come in, then in the evening we eat them, usually at least three fish dishes plus a sashimi dish etc.

    Anyway, today the topic moves to Xi Jinping and the congress and Hu jintao. When I asked them what they thought Xi would be remembered for, they unanimously said “Invading Taiwan” and when I asked them why they disliked Xi, they all said “because he is threatening Taiwan, flying his jets in our airspace etc”. When I asked them whether they wanted the USA to fight with them if China invades, they unanimously said “no, the Chinese kill other Chinese, we do not want outsiders to get involved”. Then they told me that they thought Xi would start a short war and Taiwan would beat back China. Yes, I was astonished that they would think that their 26 million could defeat 1.5 billion, but that is what they truely believe, and, some of them want the war to be sooner rather than later, to get it over with. They are all passionate about being independent, all willing to fight the Chinese to save their children (and for some, their grand children) from suffering under the Chinese.

    Make what you will of that!

    #119256
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Moscow has discussed the threat of Kiev potentially using a “dirty bomb” with London and Washington at the level of the chiefs of the General Staff, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.

    Great tactics from Russia, tactics which have paid dividends in the past: warn everybody of the worst false flags that could happen, accuse the appropriate protagonist, take it to the UN so that it is all over the news, then the protagonist will back off or be seen to be the bad guy. They missed this with the bridge attack, but they exposed the Ukraine attacks on the nuke plant. This is a good tactic, it is working and difficult to block when the talking shop is the US controlled UN.

    #119257
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Re “Zero Covid Hell”
    —————————————

    Shortish snip from recent interview: Louis-Vincent Gave: The Xi Pivot vs. The Powell Pivot

    … Xi Jinping having basically put himself in charge, put himself in a situation where A) of course nobody wanted to contradict him and B) there was really no turning back. And I think one of the big problems for China and I’m sure you’ve met people like this in the past couple years, is that it by all accounts, it looks like Xi Jinping is one of these people that is deeply COVID paranoid. And I’ve met a lot of people like this, of course. You know, colleagues, friends, and to some extent, the more people read about COVID, the more they became paranoid about it, right? Which makes sense, the more you read about a disease, the scarier it looks typically. So I think Xi Jinping decided I’m going to be in charge of this, I’m going to read everything there is about it. And the more you read, the more you freaked himself out. And so you get stuck in the situation we’re in. Now, the one sort of, perhaps, sort of silver lining to this pretty dark cloud, is that when you look at the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese Communist Party is first and foremost in the game of providing social stability. […]

    Link: https://macrovoices.podbean.com/e/macrovoices-346-louis-vincent-gave-the-xi-pivot-vs-the-powell-pivot/

    … fwiw,

    F.S.

    #119258
    aspnaz
    Participant

    In an interview with German outlet Handelsblatt, Vitrenko explained that “about 40% of the power generation plants were destroyed” by recent Russian airstrikes.

    The people of Ukraine should be going after Zelensky and his Nazis rather than working with the army. It will take a very long time to replace 40% of any country’s generation plants, especially ones without any income. Their ancestors built those plants and just because of some crazy US assholes created an historically idiotic country called Ukraine when the USSR broke apart, now the people of that region have to suffer the consequences of the incompetence of the USA, as does the rest of the world. However, the retarded Ukraine decide to go back to the USA to ask them to fix the problem …. asking the arsonist to put out the fire. The Ukraine people are in the shit and need to kick out Zelensky and his NATO allies.

    #119259
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    Going Nuclear

    Recently Russia claimed that a nuclear weapon would be exploded in Ukraine and blamed on Russia. Russia would know the weapon would have been supplied by the West and would assume it would be used as a pretext to send a nuclear strike against Russia. It would not be unlikely that Russia would decide to strike first. Instant WWIII!

    A ‘Dirty Bomb’ could conceivably be created by the Ukraine without outside help so could be regarded as less threatening. If carried out it would depend on how severe the result was. It may be that Russia would feel the need to respond, perhaps by nuking Kiev. The West would then have a short time to decide whether to start WWIII or not.

    If the result of the dirty bomb was extreme then Russia may feel the need to go further. Russia has claimed that the UK is involved and Russia promised their first nuke would be aimed at London, so they may feel the need to target London. Again the West would need to decide whether to sacrifice themselves to avenge an attack on London.

    In Syria Russia often published details of planned false flag operations in order to make it suspicious if they still went ahead. I assume this is what they are trying to do here, hopefully with success.

    It is incredible that any of the above is plausible. The risks far outweigh any possible rewards.

    #119260
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Plastic recycling has turned out to be a “failed concept” used by global corporations as a “smokescreen,” Greenpeace USA has said, urging companies to focus on abandoning single-use plastic.

    You mean to say that corporations were being disingenuous over their concern for the environment? Wow, what a revelation, so that means that the whole corporate driven green project is probably not about a concern for the environment? Does that mean that ESG is also just a cartel of investment companies like Vanguard blackmailing corporations to do as they are told and not really about the environment? So what could the project be about, could it be about stealing from the common man, the way that Pfizer and Von Hitler did in Europe?

    #119261
    aspnaz
    Participant

    But I found it hard to believe that the Chinese, intelligent as they are, would not realize the mess in which they find themselves with their insistence on evidently ineffective “Zero Covid” policies.

    This is a very interesting issue that needs further research. In China, all children are first taught to read and write, it takes many years for them to learn their language and the teaching method is memorisation through repetition. This mode of teaching is now everywhere in China.

    As I mentioned earlier, I am staying at a B&B with some boat captains and a person going to “boat captain” school. Today the person went to the class, signed in at 17:30 (the class starts at 18:00) and then left and came back to the B&B. We quizzed him about what today’s lesson was about and he, a man in his fifties, told us that the classroom lessons only involved memorising previous exam questions. They are not taught the principles of navigation or anything like that, instead they are taught the navigation exam questions and the correct answers. You can miss a lesson and as long as you have the course work, you can memorise the exam questions at home. He told us that the absentee rate is enourmous and that about half the lessons are cancelled because only about 3 people turn up.

    This is the way China teaches their children and adult students. It all starts with learning thousands of characters of the language and, given that method of teaching, ends up being the same method used in University and other schools. The student captain already knows how to captain a boat, he has friends who are captains and shown him how to do it, but he needs the exam to get the license. There are also plenty of people out there with a captain’s license who have no idea how to navigate between two points on a map.

    Zero Covid fits perfectly into this framework of people who have a little knowledge but really have no idea what they are doing. The Chinese scientists who advised government obviously have no idea that their ambition, to eradicate all copies of a virus, is so-far unheard of in the real world. Without a real understanding of your subject beyond knowing the pertinent facts, you are a useless student.

    #119262
    those darned kids
    Participant

    i sure hope ralph baric never ever finds that cave in méxico.

    #119263
    oldandtired
    Participant

    @Redneck

    USS San Francisco

    #119265
    citizenx
    Participant

    Speaking of sniveling ass clowns… found one @Redneck , found another @chooch

    @Redneck
    Russia has won!”
    They should “win”, they should have won months ago. What is the holdup?
    That is the question the Russian people want to know the answer to.
    Most recent scheme by Russian political talking heads is to twist the arm of the Afghans for the gear the US left behind , does that mean that the Russians don’t have their shit together.

    Speaking of Afghanistan…how long did it take the US/Nato to “win” against the ak goat herders? Did they “win” in Iraq ? Define “win” you fucking retard. You win at sucking nato cock and spewing bs.

    So you speak for the Russian people huh? Nah, you’re just a pathetic troll… Why don’t you go spend some quality time with your kids and family? If it’s more important for you to spend your time shit posting here rather than enjoying it with your family,,, Then again, maybe it’s better that daddy doesn’t poison his own kids into spitting images of his own retardation.

    order more popcorn and another Coke , don’t go ‘way now.

    you and choo choo, lots of popcorn laughing at you ass clowns. Funny and entertaining how neither of you have an iota of critique towards your own govt masters… You serve them well. Both of you are moral and intellectual cowards.

    @chooch
    RT has suspended presenter Anton Krasovsky for genocidal hate speech against Ukrainians.

    Seems like a vibe the permeates Russian culture.

    Why don’t you comment on your own USA culture fuck face? Oh but you’re also an expert on Russia?
    Did you happen to notice censuring free speech, banning Dr’s, banning any speech regarding the vax shots in usa? Is that an American culture Vibe ? You propagandized retards are pathetically entertaining… must be a Western cultural Vibe thing…

    #119266
    Kassandra
    Participant

    Washington State University system cancels mandate for most employees

    WSU to eliminate vaccine mandate for employees, contractors, and volunteers in most settings

    Remember, this is the university that fired their head football coach for not getting vaccinated. They fired a lot of people, and had one of the most strict mandates in the country.

    With the mandate gone through the courts in NYC what’s next? As I said earlier, word has it only 10% of employees are getting the booster who work for the University of California, do they cave next? What does this mean for the thousands (millions?) affected?

    I took a 50k a year paycut (amazing to think about really) because of the mandate at UC. I’ve lost 100k in income over the past 2 years in my new job. I’m not rich, this was 30% of my salary, and I only started making in that range over the past 7 years, in my late 40s. I’ve got no regrets really, but the impact to my retirement and future, not to mention globally with so many having suffered huge setbacks, is really staggering.

    #119267
    zerosum
    Participant

    Reality/facts – A bubble within a bubble

    Thanks RIM, …. for helping me see the other bubbles
    ———
    myopic
    synonyms: (living in a bubble)

    short-sighted · nearsighted · purblind
    lacking imagination, foresight, or intellectual insight
    synonyms:
    unimaginative · uncreative · unadventurous · narrow-minded · lacking foresight · small-minded · short-term · narrow · insular · parochial · provincial
    ——-
    Imagination/Self-delusion. – See the spoon. See the spoon bend.

    ———-

    #119268
    zerosum
    Participant

    I need sufficient energy to survive

    #119269
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2022/10/25/russia-ukraine-live-news-moscow-to-raise-dirty-bomb-at-un
    Russia-Ukraine live news: Kyiv warns of Zaporizhzhia ‘terror’ act
    By David Child
    Published On 25 Oct 2022
    25 Oct 2022

    Ukraine’s nuclear agency warns Russian forces may be preparing a “terrorist act” with materials at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
    The allegation comes as Russia doubles down on its claim that Kyiv could use a “dirty bomb”, saying it will bring the issue to the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
    The UN nuclear watchdog prepares to send inspectors in the coming days to two Ukrainian sites at Kyiv’s request, seemingly in response to Russia’s accusation.

    Russia says its forces repelled Ukrainian attacks in Kherson, Luhansk
    Moscow’s forces have repelled Ukrainian attacks in the southern Kherson region and eastern Luhansk region, the Russian defence ministry has said.

    The ministry said in a statement that more than 100 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed in the fighting and that four tanks and several other vehicles had been destroyed.

    #119270
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/10/media-continue-to-push-us-officials-said-claims-even-when-those-are-obvious-lies.html#more

    Media Continue To Push ‘U.S. Officials Said’ Claims Even When Those Are Obvious Lies

    The real function of those false assertions is to project Russia as weak, to deceive the U.S. public to keep up the support for the U.S. proxy war against Russia. That may or may not work. But as long as ‘journalists’ are willing to write down such nonsense there are also no costs to any of the ‘U.S. officials’ producing it.

    They will only stop making up shit when they are called out for it.

    Despite knowledge that the U.S. government officials are lying to them ‘journalists’ at major U.S. media continue to report their ‘not rock solid’ claims as facts.

    The New York Times reports on the northern Kherson region, where new Russia troops deployments prevent a long planned Ukrainian attack:
    A look at the map will immediately throw the last assertion into doubt.

    The northern Kherson region on the right side of Dnieper river is a strategic launching pad that allows for future attacks in several directions – Mykolaiv, Odessa, Kryvy Rih, Nikolaiev, Dnipro and beyond. No officer who has learned a bit about wars would want to give up such a strategic position. That is why the assertion that commanders requested a retreat from that area strikes me as obviously false.

    #119271
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    $50k(30%) + $50k(30%) + $50k(30%) = (90%) or

    $150k + (10%)$50k÷3 equals $166,666.67

    China’s collective zero COVID policy might be better understood as response to an act of war…no doubt. The perpetrators of this act of war might also be easily perceived as The Stupids who let the proverbial genie out of the bottle, opened Pandora’s box or let loose the dogs of war.
    AND now that we know from our host’s daily reference to COVID statistics as ordinary flu that something else is creating “alotta more mortality”, how then can we be sure China’s zeroCOVID policy isn’t a rational response to this Other Thing?

    #119272
    Noirette
    Participant

    aspnaz quoted: Noirette said,

    Afaik no med. explanation ever linked being fatter to being more impacted by covid..?

    aspnaz responded:

    Stats clearly show that being fatter is less healthy as in you are likely to suffer more medical issues and die earlier. That is unlike being super fit which makes you much less likely to suffer medical issues but does not extend your life. A “medical explanation” is not needed to verify risk statistics. A medical explanation is needed to verify any theory as to why this happens.

    Risk stats. are not the be-all or even an explanation of bad outcomes.

    What about:

    Stats clearly show that in the USA, being black (vs. white) means you are likely to suffer more medical issues (many undiagnosed, untreated, ignored..imho) and, certainly, as all stats show, to die *far earlier* than whites.

    Is this the result of black skin or black hair or black genes? I don’t think even aspnaz would say so. The causes are clearly broadly sociological, higher poverty rates, less med. insurance / coverage, jobs that expose them to more risk, living in bad conditions, poorer diet, etc. The cause is historical, not part of the decription of the present. (Slavery, prejudice, etc.) No med. rationale exists.

    COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Race/Ethnicity: Current Data and Changes Over Time

    They die more because they are looked down on, poorer, more vulnerable, have less social defenses, advocates, are more ‘expendable.’ And so it goes. If aspnaz doesn’t agree with this, I’d be very surprised.

    How does such an argument not apply to fatter / obese ppl? Particularly as it applies to covid, which is a specific infection, and has nothing to do with needing a ‘walker’ or help to climb stairs or getting less ‘exercise’, etc. For sure, fatties are ‘less fit’ in the sense of not going on mountain climbs, winning in amateur swim competitions, doing sexy pole dancing, and so on..but why are they more set to die from covid? What is the medical explanation, beyond the social stereotype? That is what I meant was missing.

    #119273
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://studentaid.gov/welcome/?redirectTo=%2Fmanage-loans%2Fforgiveness-cancellation%2Fdebt-relief-info
    The Biden-Harris Administration is providing up to $20,000 in student loan debt relief for eligible borrowers.

    Apply today (but no later than Dec. 31, 2023).

    ———-
    Who will pay the rich bankers the $20,000 that the student will not pay?
    Whaaaaat!
    You thought that the loss would be eaten by the rich lenders………..
    Hehehehe
    Maybe, it is all pretend to get your vote and it’s not going to happen.
    Hahahaha
    Pay up …. for you it’s not even a tax deduction

    #119274
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Bats
    What a delight for a father (I assume) to be showing this to his kids, listening to their chirpy questions, and the father’s answers: “Butterflies? I don’t know if they eat them.”

    #119275
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/pest-control-tips/bats.html
    A single brown bat is very beneficial: it can easily capture 600 mosquitoes each hour. A colony of 500 bats can eat a million insects nightly.

    #119276
    Cetzer
    Participant

    Recycling Plastic a ‘failed concept’ (RT, Greenpeace)

    Just let all the serfs be born and fed with a plastic spoon (of dubious durability) in their mouth.

    Recycling plastic is, or rather would be, kind’s play compared with recycling electronic components like capacitors, resistors, Printed Circuit Boards, Transformers(!)… You might be able to extract one or two precious materials like copper or gold, but most gets molten or burnt, producing some interesting side-dishes like dioxin or mercury fumes.

    #119277
    zerosum
    Participant

    Your connection isn’t private
    Attackers might be trying to steal your information from http://www.rt.com (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards).
    NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID

    Ukraine has been winning the war since week 1 of the war.

    https://www.rt.com/russia/565326-vereschuk-ukraine-refugees-return/
    Kiev tells Ukrainian refugees not to come home yet
    Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk asked her compatriots to stay abroad this winter amid a deepening energy crisis in the country

    On Monday, the head of the state-owned energy giant Naftogaz, Yuri Vitrenko, said that Ukraine was facing “the worst winter in history,” marked by “constant power outages.” He explained that recent Russian airstrikes have also hit oil refineries and destroyed “about 40% of the power generation plants.”

    On the same day, the Ukrainian online retailer Rozetka revealed that the last two weeks had seen a sharp increase in demand for “goods needed in the event of an energy crisis,” such as potbelly stoves, power banks, candles and gas burners.

    #119278
    John Day
    Participant

    @Aspnaz: Thanks for the insights regarding the views of the Taiwanese fishing-boat captains, a significant demographic, making their own way in the world. They see Xi as invading Taiwan. They see Taiwan as repulsing that invasion, better without “help” from the “west”.
    Memorization is key to homogeneity, but it is not good for problem solving, as you point out.
    Lock-step compliance is that way.

    @Dr.D. Rich: Yes, China is responding in civil-defense fashion to biowarfare attacks. It is not just response, but it is also training. They don’t speak this as such…


    @Redneck
    : Where is “the war”? Who are the competitors?
    Is it not the waning western financial-globalist-neoliberal-neocolonial extraction system against the rising BRICS+ system, not yet corrupted, more egalitarian, and promising debt-repudiation against the westerners? Americans once played such a role under FDR…
    Different “interests” cast “the war” in different lights, with different timelines and different participating factions. What explanation do you find with the least inconsistency? Do you have to make your own model of “reality”?


    @Noirette
    : Inflammation: Obesity and loss of sleep are pro-inflammatory conditions. COVID-19 in the original format, largely killed through inflammation within the circulatory system, the blood-side of the lungs, and other vascular organs, like kidneys, liver, heart and brain.
    Anti-inflammatory measures include adequate/optimal vitamin-D, a diet high in fresh vegetables, minimal food additives and processed carbohydrates, healthful oils, a baby-aspirin, some vitamin-C, some vitamin K2, daily activity, and plenty of sleep.
    You can see how poor, obese people in northern climes would have a lot of pro-inflammatory overlap.

    #119279
    Bishko
    Participant

    All these problems before us, Recycling, Pollution, Overpopulation, Recessions, Depressions, Topsoil loss, Wars, Pandemics, Elites, Banksters, High Level Graft and Corruption &c will all diminish (though not disappear) as the fossil fuels continue their EROEI decline and all their attendant infrastructures simplify, merge and fade.

    It’s beginning to look like Deagel may have been correct. Plant Potatoes (I’m sure glad I did.)

    #119280
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Next time you find yourself stuck talking to a Ukraine supporter, ask them if England should have intervened in the US civil war.

    #119281
    Polemos
    Participant

    Noirette, I wondered a similar thing (what is the relationship between obesity and COVID-19?) earlier on during the pandemic, and so I collected a number of papers I could download from pubmed and other online public resources. One of the key takeaways: adipose tissueitself acts as a reservoir and production site for SARS-CoV-2 and many other viruses, due to the ACE2 receptors and other biomechanical systems the tissues participate within for signalling inflammation states for the whole body. —This is in addition to aspnaz’s point that obese people have “more medical issues.” Here are just a few of the papers I downloaded, which I’ll link to so you and others can benefit:

    The impact of obesity on the cellular and molecular pathophysiology of COVID-19

    In the lungs, SARS-CoV-2 binds to the ACE2 receptor, upregulating the expression of ACE2 and damaging alveolar cells. [42] The ACE2 receptor is overexpressed in the adipose tissue of COVID-19 patients. [43,44] Since obese people have more adipose tissue, they are expected to have more ACE2 receptors. ACE2 receptors are expressed in monocytes and macrophages, [45] which are also more prevalent in the adipose tissue of obese people. [46,47] It is therefore likely that adipose tissue acts as a viral reservoir and possibly allows for inter-organ transmission. [43,44]”

    —See also the next paragraph concerning DPP4. And, those numbers are citations to other papers worth following up with.

    Influence of obesity on serum levels of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in COVID-19 patients

    Results herein show that serum levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies are negatively associated with BMI in COVID-19 patients. This result is consistent with the knowledge that obesity is an inflammatory condition associated with inflammaging [1] and metaflammation [50] both of which are negatively associated with a functional immune system [51]. Another result from the present study is the negative association of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies with pulmonary inflammatory markers (SAA, CRP, ferritin) in our cohort of COVID-19 patients. These are major inflammatory mediators and markers of inflammatory lung injury in patients with catastrophic acute respiratory distress syndrome, which is a primary consequence of COVID-19. SAA, CRP and ferritin are known to induce a cascade of pro-inflammatory events leading to the secretion of additional inflammation markers that contribute to the exacerbation of local and systemic inflammation resulting in dysfunctional B cells.

    —You can tell this paper was early in the pandemic, since they suggest ADE was not yet verified as occurring with SC2. Interesting also is a brief mention in the paper that linoleic acid (in vitro) has protective effects by binding with SC2, and their research corroborates that.

    Secretion of autoimmune antibodies in the human subcutaneous adipose tissue
    —While not on SC2 specifically, this paper demonstrates how subcutaneous adipose tissue participates in those immune systems, leading to the production of autoantigens, hyperinflammation, neutrophil-infiltration, and assorted other ways the body attacks itself to try and cure its own disease.

    Not sure if the blockquotes will work out right, but I’ll stop here.

    I am, though sympathetic with your main point: it’s easy to hate on “the fatty” and blame them for their own victimhood, even if it is unwitting participation in social behavior that allows them to also be targeted with others for summary destruction. People are quick to say “the elite” want to 1) divide-and-conquer, on their way to 2) destroying the masses (and the massive?), and so their critics want us to “wake up” and see the depopulation event for what it is. But, then, they’ll find some target for their own anger, frustration, rage, whether it’s someone expressing a consistent but different point of view on a website, someone unable to manage their eating habits, someone unable to control their emotions in public spaces, someone who cuts and paste memes replicating their views, &c &c. “See how they divide us?! You don’t!? Stay away from me, then, you ignorant freak and total loser!!” Divided, conquered, habituated to hate: people do unwittingly take up religious rituals looking for a scapegoat, to appease, for a moment, a useless and incurable impotency.

    I too find it difficult to know how to live with and redirect my own frustrations and angers, and I can’t just walk into the Temple and whip the money-changers or pretend like a Son of Thunder I’m ready to die with a sword in my hand and a prayer on my mind. Art, or writing, or taking walks in the forests with creeks nearby, but as the neck-tied man with eviction papers tells me, this doesn’t pay the bills.

    I see how there are gaps and holes in the social spaces even around me, from people who crawled into their rooms to live forever virtually, fell into tombs to die really, or left for islands or rich coastlines in the Southern Hemisphere. I don’t think any of them are “cowards” though I see and understand that perspective. I don’t think Ayn Rand thought of her own John Galt character as a “coward” for recognizing when it’s right to find another place to make a home —just like I don’t think the geese vees flying overhead lack bravery for getting ahead of the coming winter. So, as I watch the Law Enforcers suiting up, warming up their sonic weapons and microwave emitters in time for the November Event, as I watch the goons in the Red neckerchiefs and Blue hats scrimmaging against the Blue neckerchiefs with the Red hats, as I watch incompetent bureaucrats stand at podiums and lie for the liars who lied to them, I turn instead outwards to my windows, observing that the trees are telling me that the winter that’s coming is going to be very, very cold, dry, and yet feverish. The trees also notice the holes and gaps between them, places where the mycorrhizal network went completely silent, canceled, gone.

    Anyway, maybe at some point, citizenx will also catch on that Redneck is not from the USA. But that will cut out a lot of the basis for the invective and not-so-subtle claim for hypocrisy. He’ll think of something, I’m sure of it. Why let accuracy get in the way of a rant on a roll?

    #119282
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    I see that Nate at CP talks about the coming extreme censorship that is coming in ‘free and democratic’ nations.

    Why haven’t the Chinese population been “given the treatment”? [the fake vaccines] Nor the Russians, according to CP.

    Interestingly, the NZ Internet is getting very ‘wobbly’, as the NZ economy is progressively demolished by the totalitarian fascistic globalists, and food and other prices surge. It took 3 minutes for a routine transaction to process at a commercial premises yesterday. And another transaction I attempted would not proceed at all. Meanwhile, access to Internet at home is increasingly fragile.

    I am very aware that we could be cut off from real reporting and real news with no notice, or cut off altogether, and left to rot or fight amongst ourselves, if ‘the controllers’ deem that to be to their advantage.

    I have to fully agree with Nate when he says: “It’s sad how brainwashed and mind-warped and easily misled people are…”

    #119283
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Amid Energy Crisis, the Green Delusion Collides With Reality… Here’s What Happens Next

    Amid Energy Crisis, the Green Delusion Collides With Reality… Here’s What Happens Next

    #119284
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    US sponsorship of agitators via giant tech companies to bring about ‘regime change’ in blatant violation of the UN Charter, and then the ensuing catastrophe for the previously stable nations targeted. 1953 revisited in the case of Iran.

    Convince people to rise up and destroy their own country.

    But this isn’t 1953. I can’t see Russia, China, India etc. allowing the meddling to continue for much longer.

    12% of the world versus 88% are not good odds. Especially when the 88% have most of the resources and better technology. And are not fat and lazy and dumbed-down.

    #119285
    Germ
    Participant
    #119286
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant
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