Oct 272022
 
 October 27, 2022  Posted by at 8:45 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Salvador Dali Crepuscular old man 1918

 

Stop Worrying & Love the Bomb (Chris Hedges)
Ukraine Is Test Range For Western Arms – Russia Defense Minister (RT)
Weapons Sent To Ukraine End Up On Black Market – Putin (RT)
US Vows To Protect Allies With Nukes (RT)
About The “Dirty Bomb” Thesis And The Role Of Hatred (Saker)
NATO Warns Russia And Iran (RT)
Moscow Urges UN Probe Into Ukrainian Biolabs (RT)
The EU Is Driving Polexit (RMX)
Google and Microsoft Hit By Slowing Economy (BBC)
Apple Slashes Production As Consumer Spending Drops (RT)
No, Inflation Is NOT Over (Denninger)
Saudi Arabia Slams US For Manipulating Oil Prices (RT)
US Diesel Shortage Worsens (RT)
A Disordered World – Part 1: Fracture (Satyajit Das)
Infantilization Of The Apocalypse (Shellenberger)
Biden Launches #VaxUpAmerica Tour (CHD)
People Who Caught Mild Covid Had Increased Risk Of Blood Clots (CNBC)

 

 

 

 

Sink

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can’t shake the idea that Hedges is stuck in his cold war past. I don’t think there will be nuclear war. Threat, sure, but…

Stop Worrying & Love the Bomb (Chris Hedges)

I have covered enough wars to know that once you open that Pandora’s box, the many evils that pour out are beyond anyone’s control. War accelerates the whirlwind of industrial killing. The longer any war continues, the closer and closer each side comes to self-annihilation. Unless it is stopped, the proxy war between Russia and the U.S. in Ukraine all but guarantees direct confrontation with Russia and, with it, the very real possibility of nuclear war. U.S. President Joe Biden, who doesn’t always seem to be quite sure where he is or what he is supposed to be saying, is being propped up in the I-am-a-bigger-man-than-you contest with Russian President Vladimir Putin by a coterie of rabid warmongers who have orchestrated over 20 years of military fiascos. They are salivating at the prospect of taking on Russia, and then, if there is any habitation left on the globe, China.

Trapped in the polarizing mindset of the Cold War — where any effort to de-escalate conflicts through diplomacy is considered appeasement, a perfidious Munich moment — they smugly push the human species closer and closer toward obliteration. Unfortunately for us, one of these true believers is Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “Putin is saying he is not bluffing. Well, he cannot afford bluffing, and it has to be clear that the people supporting Ukraine and the European Union and the Member States, and the United States and NATO are not bluffing neither,” E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned. “Any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer, not a nuclear answer but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian Army will be annihilated.” Annihilated. Are these people insane?

You know we are in trouble when former Donald Trump is the voice of reason. “We must demand the immediate negotiation of a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine, or we will end up in world war three” the former U.S. president said. “And there will be nothing left of our planet — all because stupid people didn’t have a clue … They don’t understand what they’re dealing with, the power of nuclear.” I dealt with many of these ideologues — David Petraeus, Elliot Abrams, Robert Kagan, Victoria Nuland — as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. Once you strip away their chest full of medals or fancy degrees, you find shallow men and women, craven careerists who obsequiously serve the war industry that ensures their promotions, pays the budgets of their think tanks and showers them with money as board members of military contractors.

They are the pimps of war. If you reported on them, as I did, you would not sleep well at night. They are vain enough and stupid enough to blow up the world long before we go extinct because of the climate crisis, which they have also dutifully accelerated. If, as Joe Biden says, Putin is “not joking” about using nuclear weapons and we risk nuclear “Armageddon,” why isn’t Biden on the phone to Putin? Why doesn’t he follow the example of John F. Kennedy, who repeatedly communicated with Nikita Khrushchev to negotiate an end to the Cuban missile crisis? Kennedy, who unlike Biden served in the military, knew the obtuseness of generals. He had the good sense to ignore Curtis LeMay, the Air Force chief of staff and head of the Strategic Air Command, as well as the model for General Jack D. Ripper in “Dr. Strangelove,” who urged Kennedy to bomb the Cuban missile bases, an act that would have probably ignited a nuclear war. Biden is not made of the same stuff.

[..] The West has been baiting Moscow for decades. I reported from Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War. I watched these militarists set out to build what they called a unipolar world — a world where they alone ruled. First, they broke promises not to expand NATO beyond the borders of a unified Germany. Then they broke promises not to “permanently station substantial combat forces” in the new NATO member countries in Eastern and Central Europe. Then they broke promises not to station missile systems along Russia’s border. Then they broke promises not to interfere in the internal affairs of border states such as Ukraine, orchestrating the 2014 coup that ousted the elected government of Victor Yanukovich, replacing it with an anti-Russian — fascist aligned — government, which, in turn, led to an eight-year-long civil war, as the Russian populated regions in the east sought independence from Kiev.

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“We have eight different 155mm artillery systems in the field … so it’s like a competition between systems” to see which one proves best..”

Ukraine Is Test Range For Western Arms – Russia Defense Minister (RT)

The conflict in Ukraine gives Western arms producers a chance to see which products fare best in a real fight against Russia, the country’s defense minister has said.“We have a combat testing field in Ukraine during this war,” Aleksey Reznikov explained. “We have eight different 155mm artillery systems in the field … so it’s like a competition between systems” to see which one proves best. The comments came in an interview with Politico published on Tuesday. The testing ground idea was previously expressed by Reznikov’s deputy, Vladimir Gavrilov, who claimed that some American defense contractors were fielding their prototypes in Ukraine.Kiev expects military aid from NATO members to continue flowing into the country for years and wants to benefit more from it, Reznikov said. For example, Ukraine could start joint ventures with Poland, the UK, or Germany to produce weapons.

“We have to develop a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) industry not only for aerial drones but also on land and in the sea because it’s the future” of warfare, he noted. He was also skeptical about restrictions under which Ukraine’s supporters are shipping arms to Kiev. As the conflict with Russia unfolded, the US and its allies have repeatedly reconsidered previous decisions not to send heavier weapons, the defense minister pointed out. “I’m really optimistic that Abrams tanks are possible in the future and I am sure that fighter jets like F-16s, F-15s, or Gripen from Sweden will also be possible,” he said. Washington was initially reluctant to provide lethal aid to Ukraine out of concern that Russia would consider it an escalation but gradually reconsidered and supplied increasingly sophisticated weapons, which Reznikov sees as a favorable trend.

Western officials cited logistical issues with training Ukrainian pilots and maintenance of the fighter jets among the reasons why Ukraine can’t get F-16s or F-15s. But according to media reports, Kiev may get them in the long run. Reznikov said European NATO allies were looking to the US in their aid decisions, so it was up to Washington to up the ante. “After the first Abrams [arrives] I’m sure we will have Leopards, Marders, and other types of heavy armored vehicles like tanks,” he told the news outlet. Among the weapons the US most recently designated for Ukraine are the NASAMS air defense systems. Washington is also reportedly considering sending some old HAWK surface-to-air missiles it has stockpiled to see if they are still effective.

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“..70% of weapons supplied to Ukraine never make it to the front lines as they have to pass through a network of “power lords, oligarchs and political players.”

Weapons Sent To Ukraine End Up On Black Market – Putin (RT)

Western weapons flowing into Ukraine have begun to make their way onto black markets, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with the heads of security and special services of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries on Wednesday. The Russian leader called on the participants of the meeting to bolster cooperation in anti-terrorism efforts and noted that there were “serious challenges” posed by the emerging black arms markets in Ukraine. Putin claimed that “cross-border criminal groups” were actively involved in smuggling weapons to other regions and that it wasn’t just small firearms. “There is a persistent risk of criminals getting hold of more powerful weapons, including portable air defense systems and precision weapons.”

The president’s statement comes after Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, warned last month that corrupt Ukrainian officials had established channels to deliver Western-supplied weapons onto the global black market. Meanwhile, the West’s top military officials have admitted that it is nearly impossible to effectively track where the billions of dollars worth of arms delivered to Ukraine actually end up. Pentagon Inspector General Sean O’Donnell told Bloomberg in August that there was almost no fidelity as the Ukrainians still used paper “hand receipts” to trace supplied weapons. CBS News also reported that some 70% of weapons supplied to Ukraine never make it to the front lines as they have to pass through a network of “power lords, oligarchs and political players.”

“There is really no information as to where they’re going at all,” Donatella Rovera, a senior crisis adviser with Amnesty international told the outlet, adding that it was “really worrying” that the countries supplying these weapons do not find it necessary to put in place robust oversight mechanisms. CBS was later pressured, however, to pull the documentary and amend the story after the channel was accused of spreading “Russian propaganda.” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podoliak has insisted there is “no proof” that weapons entering the country were unaccounted for. Ukraine has insisted that an uninterrupted flow of Western weapons is the key to the country’s survival on the battlefield. Russia, meanwhile, has warned on multiple occasions that pumping Kiev with weapons will only prolong the conflict.

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As Russia spoke just once about self protection.

US Vows To Protect Allies With Nukes (RT)

The US military will unleash its full arsenal, including nuclear weapons, to protect South Korea and Japan from attack, a top State Department official has said, also blasting Pyongyang for its “dangerous” and “destabilizing” weapons tests, while vowing “ironclad” cooperation with allies in Asia. Speaking ahead of multiple rounds of talks in Japan’s capital with her South Korean and Japanese counterparts on Tuesday, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Washington would deploy its “nuclear, conventional and missile defense” forces should the two allies ever come under attack, emphasizing the US’ ‘nuclear umbrella’ policy.

Sherman went on to condemn recent missile launches by North Korea – a major focus of this week’s meetings – slamming the DPRK’s record number of weapons tests this year as “deeply irresponsible, dangerous, and destabilizing.” During a separate meeting held with Sherman before the three-way sit-down alongside Japan, South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyundong said Pyongyang’s actions were “creating serious tension on the Korean Peninsula,” sounding the alarm over an update to North Korea’s nuclear weapons policies last month.In addition to a flurry of weapons tests and shows of force in retaliation to joint US-South Korean war games, the North recently announced that it had carried out a drill simulating the loading of tactical nuclear warheads into a silo hidden below a reservoir, part of a series of exercises launched in September to ensure the readiness of its nuclear forces.

North Korea maintains its nuclear arsenal is intended only for self-defense, and has criticized joint US-South Korean military drills time and again as rehearsals for an invasion. US officials have repeatedly predicted an imminent North Korean nuclear test in recent months, though the country has refrained from any live detonations since 2017. Nonetheless, the forecasts come amid a major spike in tensions between the two Koreas, as both sides continue to issue threats and carry out military demonstrations. On Wednesday, Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo pledged deeper military ties amid “provocations” by Pyongyang, and also “agreed that an unparalleled scale of response would be needed in case North Korea conducts a seventh nuclear test,” a South Korean official told reporters.

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“To the demented minds of the Neocons, total chaos would look better than total defeat, right?”

About The “Dirty Bomb” Thesis And The Role Of Hatred (Saker)

[Sidebar: right now, NATO simply does not have the forces needed to attack Russia with any hope of success. One single Airborne Brigade Combat Team won’t make *any* difference here. And even if the US decides to go to a full mobilization (which is really impossible, good luck with that!), it would have to bring those forces to Europe. And even if the US can bring in, say, 1’000’000 million men, it will be far easier for Russia to mobilize, say, 3’000’000 men in response. Then what? And did I mention that as soon as the US ships set sail, Russia will obliterate any ports and facilities expecting to receive the US forces. Try this: take the full Polish, 3B, Romanian and Ukronazi armed forces, then add the FULL 101st and 82nd and what do you get? A multinational (“combined”) force which was never designed to operate in such a convoluted way, especially against the better-than-peer united military under a single command! And I won’t even go into such thorny issues as assembly points, maneuver, logistics, air defenses, etc. As I have said, this is all optics, optics and more optics, nothing more]

While zombies like Brandon and his “genius” VP are clueless about any of that, there must be at least a few folks in the Pentagon or the letter soup agencies who understand the simple fact that the way things look now, the Hegemony has three options: • Be defeated • Declare victory and leave (same deal, just with a tiny fig leaf for modesty) • Commit suicide by attacking Russia directly. Not very good perspectives. So here is one more: how about creating total chaos and hope that something advantageous comes out of it? In other words, while setting off a dirty bomb will do nothing in purely military terms (it sure won’t stop the Russian military), it will create such a huge political reaction that the current situation will turn into total chaos, panic, rumors, lies, etc. To the demented minds of the Neocons, total chaos would look better than total defeat, right?

Yes, I know, nobody with half a brain will ever sincerely believe that the Russians did it. But if past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, I would submit that there will always be enough doubleplusgoodshitheaters in the Hegemony to believe literally *anything* no matter how self-evidently stupid and preposterous that *anything* is. We do, after all, live in a society were nobody teaches how to think anymore (schools just make kids dumber and dumber) and the vast majority of people still reply on legacy corporate propaganda machine to get what they think is “information”. Not to mention that on a psychological and spiritual level, we live not only in a post-Christian society, but even a post-Truth society in which true and false have simply lost any objective meaning other than “like it” or “I don’t like it”. We could even call this a “post-reality” society!

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NATO is an empty echo chamber.

NATO Warns Russia And Iran (RT)

Russia now falsely claims Ukraine is preparing to use a radiological “dirty bomb” on its own territory, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Report informs, citing NATO. NATO Allies reject this transparently false allegation: “Russia often accuses others of what they intend to do themselves. We have seen this pattern before. From Syria to Ukraine. Russia must not use false pretexts for further escalation.” According to Stoltenberg, the world is watching closely: “Russia’s brutal war and illegal war is at a pivotal moment. President Putin is responding to his failures on the battlefield with more aggression. Strikes on civilians, on civilian energy infrastructure. And drone and missile attacks on residential areas.” “In recent days, we have also seen Iran provide military support to the Russian war effort. This is unacceptable. No country should be helping the aggressor in an illegal war. So I welcome that Allies and the European Union are implementing strong sanctions on Tehran,” he said.

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“..Washington has “worked collaboratively to improve Ukraine’s biological safety, security, and disease surveillance for both human and animal health,” by providing support to “46 peaceful Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and disease diagnostic sites over the last two decades.”

I like how they fit in animal health.

Moscow Urges UN Probe Into Ukrainian Biolabs (RT)

Russia is calling on the UN Security Council to establish a commission to investigate alleged violations of the convention prohibiting the production or use of biological weapons by Ukraine and the United States.“We requested a meeting in two days in line with Article VI of the Biological Weapons Convention,” the Russian mission to the United Nations said on Tuesday. Moscow’s ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, circulated a draft resolution ahead of a meeting set for Thursday, along with “a variety of documents and evidence that shed light on the true nature of military biological activities of the US and Ukraine on the Ukrainian territory.”

Russia was forced to invoke Article VI of the convention to raise the issues with the Security Council after its repeated inquiries were largely ignored by Washington and Kiev, who “have not provided necessary explanations, nor have they taken immediate measures to remedy the situation,” Nebenzia explained. Moscow has alleged that the two countries conducted secretive, joint biological research on Ukrainian soil, claiming it had obtained incriminating evidence of those activities during the ongoing military operation. The Russian Defense Ministry has gradually released said materials to the public in batches since March.“The data analysis gives evidence of non-compliance by the American and Ukrainian sides with the provisions” of the BWC, Nebenzia said.

Last month, Russia convened a meeting of BCW member states in Geneva, which failed to provide any tangible result, with delegates from 35 out of 89 nations either dismissing the Russian claims or expressing support for the kind of research the US and Ukraine were conducting, according to the US State Department. Only seven nations expressed support for Russia: Belarus, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela. In the wake of the meeting, Moscow proposed amendments to the BWC, floating three ideas to reinforce the landmark international agreement and make it more legally binding for its parties. Namely, Russia called for negotiations on a “legally binding protocol,” an “effective verification mechanism” and a “scientific advisory committee” within the group.

Russia also proposed making the control mechanisms more transparent, with additional “confidence-building measures,” suggesting BWC participants must be obliged to declare their “activities in the biological sphere outside the national territory.” The US and Ukraine have dismissed Russia’s bioweapons claims as disinformation and a conspiracy theory. Back in June, the Pentagon published the ‘Fact Sheet on WMD Threat Reduction Efforts with Ukraine, Russia and Other Former Soviet Union Countries’. The US military claimed that following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Washington has “worked collaboratively to improve Ukraine’s biological safety, security, and disease surveillance for both human and animal health,” by providing support to “46 peaceful Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and disease diagnostic sites over the last two decades.” These programs have allegedly focused on “improving public health and agricultural safety measures at the nexus of nonproliferation.”

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“A democratic mandate was overturned in the name of democracy..”

The EU Is Driving Polexit (RMX)

It now looks certain that the money from the EU Recovery Fund owed to Poland will not arrive in Warsaw before the 2023 parliamentary elections. This dramatic move is a purely political decision taken in Brussels and Berlin to “starve” the unruly Poles. Now, there are leaks in the media that the remaining EU funds owed to Poland will also be frozen. This is no surprise given that the EU establishment has abandoned any pretense of even-handedness. It is logical that Brussels brings out all available weapons against the hated conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government. The objective is to make Poles vote the right way and choose the right government. It is meddling in the internal and sovereign affairs of a member state, which has little to do with democracy. This is not in the spirit of EU treaties and founding principles.

Principles such as subsidiarity and the notion of a Europe of equal and sovereign member states — a voluntary union that pools rather than takes away sovereignty. Now, the EU seems to be about breaking rebellious provinces and making them accept central decision-making authority. This is not the first time this has happened. The same was done to the Syriza government in Greece in 2015. It was forced to adopt policies imposed by the troika of the European Commission, IMF, and European Central Bank. A democratic mandate was overturned in the name of democracy. It would all be funny if it was not so serious.European institutions have also done this to Italy, changing governments to ones that followed its strictures. Pressure was also applied to Ireland, Portugal, and Spain. Now, it is Poland’s and Hungary’s turn.

The EU establishment is determined to avoid any change to the way it does things. It has learned nothing from the financial crisis of 2008, the euro crisis, Brexit, or the total collapse of its energy policy as a result of the war in Ukraine. They do not welcome calls for reform that would make them share power. When that kind of challenge arises, they react sharply, calling opponents extremists and anti-Europeans who must be stopped. The EU elites are always right and never at fault for anything. We cannot rule out that they will succeed in breaking Poland in the same way as they broke Athens and Rome. But if they do, it will not be without consequences. Polexit could become a self-fulfilling prophecy as the people turn against the EU or as the EU establishment effectively pushes Poland out of the EU. The groundwork for this is being laid before our very eyes.

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The tech sector is taking major hits.

Google and Microsoft Hit By Slowing Economy (BBC)

Sales at the tech giants Alphabet and Microsoft have slowed sharply, adding to fears of a downturn in the economy. Alphabet, which owns Google and YouTube, said sales rose just 6% in the three months to September, to $69bn, as firms cut their advertising budgets. It marked the US firm’s weakest quarterly growth in nearly a decade outside of the start of the pandemic. Microsoft meanwhile said demand for its computers and other technology had weakened. Its sales rose by 11% to $50.1bn, marking its slowest revenue growth in five years. Consumers and businesses around the world are cutting back as prices rise and interest rates go up, fuelling fears of a global recession. A strong US dollar has also hurt American multinationals, making it more expensive to sell products abroad.


Profits at Alphabet dropped nearly 30% to $13.9bn in the quarter, as YouTube ad revenues declined for the first time since the firm started to report them publicly. Sales growth at the firm has slowed for five consecutive quarters. Boss Sundar Pichai said that Alphabet was “sharpening” its focus and “being responsive to the economic environment”. “When Google stumbles, it’s a bad omen for digital advertising at large,” said Evelyn Mitchell, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, noting that Google’s core website has in the past been more resilient to ad spending downturns than social media sites like Facebook or Snap. “This disappointing quarter for Google signifies hard times ahead if market conditions continue to deteriorate.”

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And that tech sector is a very large part of the financial market.

Apple Slashes Production As Consumer Spending Drops (RT)

US tech giant Apple will cut back the assembly of the recently launched iPhone 14 Plus to counter softness in smartphone sales, market researcher TrendForce reported on Tuesday. The company will reportedly focus instead on high-end models. According to the report, the manufacturer will increase output of the more expensive iPhone 14 Pro, the share of which has increased to 60% of total output from the initially planned 50%. It could reportedly further rise to 65% in the future.The researcher indicated that Apple’s Pro and Pro Max premium tier devices have been strong sellers at a time when a global chip crisis is unfolding, helping the company push margins higher.


It also warned that rising US interest rates could crimp consumer spending, undermining demand for iPhones in the first quarter of 2023. This could reportedly lead to a 14% year-on-year drop in production to 52 million units.Data by research firm Canalys shows that Apple was the only vendor in the top five to register growth in shipments in the third quarter. The company has improved its share of the global smartphone market to 18% from 15% a year ago despite the shrinking market. Last month, Apple said it would manufacture the iPhone 14 in India, as it moves some of its production out of China to mitigate the risks arising from the growing tensions between Washington and Beijing.

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“..nobody is going to invest in a 20, 30 or 40 year lifetime plant when it can be ripped out from under them in two years..”

No, Inflation Is NOT Over (Denninger)

I’ve heard plenty of it. The rally Friday was predicated on yet another “rumor” that The Fed was going to “step down” its rate hikes. It’s bunk.Folks, what’s the inflation rate you’ve been quoted for food on an annualized basis for the last 12 months? 10, 12%? Really? What planet are you on? It’s not “sticker price”, its as sold price that matters. That is if the “shelf” price is $2.49 for an 8oz bar of cheese but the store has a “use five times” coupon for $1.69 the price is $1.69.If suddenly the coupons disappear what is the actual inflation in as-sold price? It’s not 11% — it’s close to fifty percent.If eggs are routinely $0.99/dz and now they’re $2.09 that’s more than a double.Look at the price of a can of pumpkin for a pie coming up in a few weeks. More than a double from last year; now over $5 where I am. Can you blunt this by “trading down” and similar? Sure. For a while.

You can also burn through your freezer, if you have one. But eventually this shows up in your grocery bill and if you think this has been 11% or somesuch over the last 12 months I want some of whatever you’re smoking. Until the Pavlovian response of the markets to any rumor The Fed will slow down breaks and Congress stops thinking it can blow $2.067 trillion on Medicare and Medicaid in a fiscal year while collecting just $339 billion in tax to pay for that inflation is not done. Further, until The Federal Government not only rescinds its declaration that carbon-based energy shall be extinguished and puts into law protections preventing them from threatening to ruin the entire field again which cannot be changed at the simple whim of the majority energy companies would be committing rank fraud to invest in further production, refining and transport — and they will not, as a result, do so.

They will instead do the only rational thing under that paradigm and run their existing plant to ruin which means that problem won’t get resolved either — nor will the high prices.If your thesis is that this will reverse “in three weeks” on a “Red Hurricane” in the mid-term elections you’re nuts Neither Republicans or Democrats have done a single thing over the last twenty years about the source of the budget issues — in fact they have, each and every year, made it worse. The war on energy cannot be rescinded with a simple majority because nobody is going to invest in a 20, 30 or 40 year lifetime plant when it can be ripped out from under them in two years as happened this time. Sorry folks but if you’re buying into that — you’re wrong.

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The love affair is over. No more petro dollar.

Saudi Arabia Slams US For Manipulating Oil Prices (RT)

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, has criticized nations for tapping their emergency oil stockpiles in order to manipulate prices, and warned of consequences if the reserves run dry. “It is my profound duty to make clear to the world that losing emergency stocks may be painful in the months to come,” the Saudi minister told the Future Initiative Investment conference in Riyadh on Tuesday. He noted that the US’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) was not intended to relieve price pressures, but instead was meant to address emergency supply constraints. The comments come after US President Joe Biden announced the sale of another 14 million barrels from the SPR, following the release of 180 million barrels of oil since April.

Last week, the US authorities said they would release additional crude from the SPR to keep a lid on America’s gasoline prices and then replenish the reserves. The historic use of emergency stocks has worried investors around the world, as excessive volumes of oil could flood the market and put it under pressure. According to an oil analyst at Energy Aspects, Amrita Sen, the SPR is now “absolutely being used to keep prices lower even though that’s not what it’s meant to be used for.” The Biden administration has reportedly indicated that further tapping of the strategic reserves could be linked to the recent decision of OPEC+ to cut oil production.

OPEC+ announced that countries comprising the group will cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day starting in November. The cuts will be distributed based on quotas under the OPEC+ deal as of August 2022. The curtailing of output is aimed at stabilizing the global oil market ahead of a seasonal drop in demand, and amid fears of a global recession.

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All the trucks that deliver all the products.

US Diesel Shortage Worsens (RT)

US diesel shortages are spreading along the East Coast amid a ban on imports from Russia, raising fears of further surges in prices for the fuel as consumers brace for the winter heating season. Mansfield Energy, one of the nation’s major fuel distributors, instituted emergency measures on Tuesday and warned its customers that carriers were being forced to visit multiple terminals in some cases to find supplies, delaying deliveries. With shortages spreading from the Northeast to the Southeast, the company advised customers to give 72-hour notice for their orders to avoid having to pay above-market prices. “In many areas, actual fuel prices are currently 30-80 cents higher than the posted market average because supply is tight,” said Mansfield, which delivers over three billion gallons of oil products annually.

With the relatively low-cost suppliers running out of diesel, distributors are forced to draw from higher-cost sources, resulting in unusually wide spreads in pricing. Mansfield’s advisory came just six days after US National Economic Council director Brian Deese told Bloomberg News that diesel supplies were “unacceptably low” and that President Joe Biden’s administration had “all options” on the table to reduce prices. However, as Bloomberg and other media outlets have noted, it’s not clear how those options would provide long-term relief. Diesel supplies in New England, the US region most reliant on distillate fuels for heating, have reportedly dwindled to about one-third of normal levels for this time of year. Nationwide, the US has only 25 days’ worth of diesel supplies, the lowest level since 2008.

Deese told Bloomberg that the US could tap its Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, which holds one million barrels of diesel for emergency use. But, as the Washington Post noted, demand for the fuel is so high in the Northeast that those reserves would be depleted in fewer than six hours. The White House has also considered banning or restricting exports of refined fuels – a strategy that industry trade groups claimed would backfire “Banning or limiting the export of refined products would likely decrease inventory levels, reduce domestic refining capacity, put upward pressure on consumer fuel prices, and alienate US allies during a time of war,” the American Petroleum Institute and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers said earlier this month in a letter to US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.

The shortages also put the US at risk of further spikes in prices if there’s a supply disruption, such as a refinery breakdown. Higher prices for the fuel would ripple through the US economy because 18-wheelers and other diesel-powered vehicles carry about 70% of the nation’s freight tonnage. Diesel prices are currently averaging nearly $5.32 per gallon nationwide, down 8.6% from the all-time high set in June, according to the AAA auto club. By comparison, the average gasoline price has dropped 25% from its record high to $3.76 per gallon. Diesel prices are up 47% from a year ago.

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“Whatever the length, dimensions and outcome, Ukraine has exposed already present major differences in the world.”

A Disordered World – Part 1: Fracture (Satyajit Das)

The avoidable Ukraine conflict, with its unnecessary destruction and human suffering, is best seen as a catalyst. Unwillingness to recognise core interests of parties, increasingly entrenched positions, and lack of interest in negotiations means a spiral into a wider confrontation is not impossible. With escalation difficult to calibrate, the evolution from a proxy into a real war between the US and Russia, which might draw in China, all nuclear-armed, remains possible.The West’s expressed desire for engineering regime change within Russia is dangerous. Any new regime may not be more amenable to Western pressure. History, most recently the Arab Spring and Colour Revolutions, shows that a dangerous political void is more likely than liberalisation.

Whatever the length, dimensions and outcome, Ukraine has exposed already present major differences in the world. In particular, the West’s response -trade restrictions, sanctions and asset seizures- will outlive the military actions and prove more damaging. The weaponization of trade and finance, modern gunboat diplomacy, has a long lineage. Sanctions and blockades were used in World War 1 and influenced Japan’s entry into World War 2. Western embargoes against communist bloc countries were common during the Cold War. Since 1979, the US has sought to isolate the Islamic Republic of Iran established by a popular revolution which overthrew the Shah, who had been installed by an American coup d’état. Measures against Russia commenced in 2014. The US has imposed progressively more stringent restrictions on China covering exports and sales of critical technologies since 2018.


In the short term, the measures have affected Covid19 disrupted supply chains, aggravating shortages and price inflation, especially in food, energy and raw materials. In the longer-term, the interaction with other stresses may prove significant. The effects of climate change driven extreme weather – droughts, floods, storms, wildfires- on food production and transportation links is accelerating. A triple dip La Niña alone threatens large scale disturbance with a potential global cost of $1 trillion (around 1 percent of global GDP). Resource scarcity – water, food, energy, raw materials- is simultaneously rising due to natural limits. The decisions by major producers to increasingly stockpile or limit foreign sales to ensure domestic supply and control local costs are adding to disruptions to food production.

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“Civil rights activists in the 1950s sat at lunch counters and demanded to be treated like full adults. Notably, it was racist counterprotesters who poured milkshakes over them. Today, it’s the protesters who are spilling milk and throwing food.”

Infantilization Of The Apocalypse (Shellenberger)

On Sunday, after climate activists in Germany threw mashed potatoes on a Monet painting, they screamed at the nearby museum-goers. “We won’t be able to feed our families in 2050” because of climate change, they alleged. But Volkswagen already agreed last year to end the sale of vehicles with internal combustion engines by 2035, and the UN Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts rising yields under even very high temperatures so long as farmers keep using fertilizer, irrigation, and tractors. That is, yields will continue under climate change so long as farmers don’t take the advice of climate activists. The activists who keep degrading precious works of art, and themselves, claim to be concerned about food and energy supplies, but in opposing oil, gas and fertilizer production they are actively reducing both. Over the last several months, I have described the demands of climate activists as fanatical and pointed to a large body of evidence suggesting that nihilism, narcissism, and feelings of personal inadequacy are the primary motives.


But nihilism, narcissism, and personal inadequacy alone do not explain why climate activists have chosen temper tantrum tactics. After all, the greatest protest movements of all time engaged in far more grown-up and dignified tactics. Think of the Salt March led by Gandhi, the Montgomery Bus Boycott led by Martin Luther King, and the anti-whaling protests of Greenpeace. Where protesters in the past asked to be treated like adults, climate protesters today demand to be treated like children. Civil rights activists in the 1950s sat at lunch counters and demanded to be treated like full adults. Notably, it was racist counterprotesters who poured milkshakes over them. Today, it’s the protesters who are spilling milk and throwing food. Why is that, exactly? Why have Left-wing activists regressed in their tactics? The people in the protests are themselves apparently dignified people.

Read more …

Pfizer’s sales department. What’s the uptake in kids so far? 2%? It’s over.

Biden Launches #VaxUpAmerica Tour (CHD)

Flanked by Dr. Anthony Fauci, other top U.S. public health officials and the CEOs of major pharmacy chains including CVS, Rite-Aid and Walgreens, President Biden today urged “all Americans” to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine and pleaded with Congress to continue funding the vaccines and COVID-19 treatments, such as Pfizer’s Paxlovid. “If you’re fully vaccinated, get one more COVID shot — once a year, that’s it,” Biden said, likening it to an annual flu shot. “If you get it you’re protected, and if you don’t, you’re putting yourself and other people at unnecessary risk,” he said. Biden, who last month declared the “pandemic is over,” also urged people to get their kids the flu shot and the COVID-19 shot, stating “you can get them at the same time.” Biden ended his speech by getting the COVID-19 booster shot live on camera.

Commenting on Biden’s speech, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., founder, chairman of the board and chief legal counsel for Children’s Health Defense, said: “It’s troubling President Biden is so captive of a false and discredited narrative that he continues to aggressively promote a high-risk, zero-liability, experimental medical intervention with a product that doesn’t work as advertised and is causing horrendous health problems in Americans. “It’s even more dismaying that he has used the prestige and moral authority of the presidency to recruit America’s corporations into a racketeering enterprise.” Biden’s speech coincided with today’s announcement that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday will launch a #VaxUpAmerica Family Vaccine Tour that will feature pop-up vaccination events across the country.

As part of this tour, the White House said: “HHS will work with national and community-based organizations and others to reach families where they are with information on COVID-19 vaccines, and will host pop-up vaccination events and distribute toolkits at venues such as Head Start provider locations, nursing homes and community health centers around the country.” According to the White House, administration officials and others will “share information and encourage schools, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, employers and others to host their own vaccination events.”The #VaxUpAmerica Tour will be accompanied by a big advertising push. “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is launching new national and local TV, radio and print ads geared at reaching Black and Latino audiences in more than 30 markets in English and Spanish. New football and country music-themed radio ads geared at reaching rural communities will run in 15 local markets,” the White House said.

Read more …

More from Pfizer’s sales department.

People Who Caught Mild Covid Had Increased Risk Of Blood Clots (CNBC)

People who caught mild cases of Covid-19 during the first year of the pandemic had a higher risk of developing blood clots than those who were not infected, according to a large study published by British scientists this week. Patients with mild Covid, defined as those not hospitalized, were 2.7 times more likely to develop blood clots, according to the study published in the British Medical Journal’s Heart on Monday. They were also 10 times more likely to die than people who did not have Covid. Scientists affiliated with Queen Mary University of London followed 18,000 people who caught Covid during the first year of the pandemic and compared their health outcomes with nearly 34,000 people who didn’t contract the virus.

Participants were tracked until they developed cardiovascular disease, died or until the study ended in March 2021. Most of the study was conducted before the vaccines rolled out in the Britain in December 2020. While people with mild Covid had an increased risk of blood clots, patients hospitalized with the virus had a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease in general. The risk of cardiovascular disease for mild and severe cases was highest in the first 30 days after infection but continued later. In addition, patients hospitalized with Covid were 28 times more likely to develop blood clots, 22 times more likely to suffer heart failure and 17 times more likely to have a stroke, according to the study. Overall, they were over 100 times more likely to die than people who didn’t have Covid.

The scientists said their findings highlight the importance of monitoring even people who had mild Covid for cardiovascular disease over the long term. “Our findings highlight the increased cardiovascular risk of individuals with past infection, which are likely to be greater in countries with limited access to vaccination and thus greater population exposure to COVID-19,” the authors of the study wrote.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Dutch language, seal=zeehond (sea dog)

 

 

Male elephants are normally 6000 kg max. This one is estimated at 8000 kg.

 

 


Leanne Cooke photographed a deadly venomous Stephen’s Banded snake in Maitland, Australia

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle October 27 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 51 total)
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  • #119413

    Salvador Dali Crepuscular old man 1918   • Stop Worrying & Love the Bomb (Chris Hedges) • Ukraine Is Test Range For Western Arms – Russia Def
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle October 27 2022]

    #119414
    Germ
    Participant

    “Devastated parents of boy, 15, who died after collapsing in a Liverpool restaurant”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11353451/Devastated-parents-boy-15-died-collapsing-Liverpool-restaurant-pay-tribute.html

    Normal!

    #119415
    Germ
    Participant
    #119416
    Germ
    Participant
    #119417
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    “The White House has also considered banning or restricting exports of refined fuels – a strategy that industry trade groups claimed would backfire “Banning or limiting the export of refined products would likely decrease inventory levels, reduce domestic refining capacity, put upward pressure on consumer fuel prices, and alienate US allies during a time of war,” …”

    Can someone who is way smarter than I am explain why restricting export would increase prices domestically? (serious question – I don’t get it) Thanks!

    #119418
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    “If you get it you’re protected, and if you don’t, you’re putting yourself and other people at unnecessary risk,” he [Biden] said.

    Is that misinformation or disinformation? I get the two mixed up.

    #119419
    Dr. D
    Participant

    10-year comes down to test the breakout at 4%. Classic formation.

    “Gunmen Storm Iranian Pilgrimage Site In Major Attack: 15 Dead & 40 Wounded”

    Trying to antagonize Iran and open that new front. “Always fight a three-front war” – Lao Tzu

    “After Sending out 240,000 Unverified Ballots, Pennsylvania Now Warns of ‘Delays’ Counting Midterm Votes”

    Quarter of a million votes. In just this ONE line. Let that sink in. If PA has 4 cities, this is a fifth they may have just made up. And “Warns of delays”? Yeah, who could have predicted that, except all of us, months ago. Can you see how that gives the military license to step in? In the middle of “a war”? They won’t? You mean the way the Supreme Court had zero jurisdiction to decide the race in 2000, illegally jumped in, and also decided it wrong, and everybody was good with it?

    Credit Suisse is nearing a deal to sell the securitized-products group to financial giants Apollo Global and PIMCO, as part of the bank’s retreat from Wall Street.”

    I guess we know what Powell traded for access to that $6B lifeline.

    “Forget Big Brother, Big MUM is Google’s new tool for suppressing conservatives…”

    Mum’s the word, I guess. Mummy dearest. “Try not to speak” I have to think these guys know what their projects sound like, and don’t care. “Jigsaw” is the name of their other one. Like the movie. Or the comic villain.

    “Black Supremacist Guilty in Deadly Christmas Parade Attack”

    Shocking. I don’t think anyone’s been convicted since I don’t know when. What did he get, 6 months, out with time served?

    “Stop Worrying & Love the Bomb (Chris Hedges)”

    I’m not sure at the moment that anyone knows where this is going. Too many variables, with too many former anchors unmoored. But I think probably that’s what it takes to alter the path and release the status quo. Those anchors moor them especially, and more than us. How else would it change? And don’t we need change? Perhaps this is the purpose of war among humans.

    ““We have eight different 155mm artillery systems in the field … so it’s like a competition between systems” to see which one proves best..”

    None of them. Because they were all created for Congressional districts and maximum cost.

    “I’m really optimistic that Abrams tanks are possible in the future and I am sure that fighter jets like F-16s, F-15s, or Gripen from Sweden will also be possible,”

    The Abrams is a design from about 1973. The F-16 is 1976. The F-15 is 1972. That’s “Soviet-era” and way past Soviet era. Russian “Javelins” were blowing up Abrams like roman candles a few years ago in one theatre, I think it was Yemen. They’re also too heavy, too complicated, and use far too much gas: supply chain, supply chain, supply chain. At 10,000 miles.

    He then says he wants Leopards and Marders too. Does this guy know anything about war? Supply chain. So you want 4 different units in the field at once for 4 different parts and 4 different mechanics and gear to fix them?

    But go ahead and try them if you want. I’ll just use a $10,000 drone to blow up your $1,000,000 rocket in the butt like “W” said, all day long. Zero mile supply chain.

    “US Vows to Protect Allies with Nukes (RT)”

    And also attack allies with nukes. Energy nukes. Like NordStream.

    “Sherman went on to condemn recent missile launches by North Korea – a major focus of this week’s meetings – slamming the DPRK’s record number of weapons tests this year as “deeply irresponsible, dangerous, and destabilizing.”

    …The very same week the U.S. does the very same ICBM testing. “It’s not Fascism when we do it!” …We’re pure as the driven snow…but we drifted. I mean, we never attacked/invaded/occupied/war crimed anyone, right? All aggressive attacks, occupation, and wars of expansion are good, peaceful and right…when we do them. In Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan… All little kids who are U.S. citizens become terrorists when we illegally drone strike them. “…Killin’ some folks” –Barack Obama

    …Just. Tired.

    “NATO Warns Russia and Iran (RT)”

    Or else what? You’ll send in the 3,000 men of the 101st? And hold one tiny village? To “warn” you need to have forces to enforce your will.

    “claiming it had obtained incriminating evidence of those activities during the ongoing military operation.”

    Well that’s easy then! We read your claims, publicize them widely through the West, and find out if they’re full of s—t or not. Problem solved. Oh wait: you won’t look? …And you somehow know you don’t want to look, before looking? Uh-huh. So. Weird.

    And Fauci just funded the creation of a far more deadly MonkeyPox, to kill off the gay men he missed the first time around. Don’t worry: after creating what nature wouldn’t, when it gets released, it’ll be an “accident”. So all good, right? Oopsie!

    “the remaining EU funds owed to Poland will also be frozen. This is no surprise given that the EU establishment has abandoned any pretense of even-handedness.”

    I can’t believe people ever bought this and I was the crank for warning them. What I learned was, you can’t buy dinner by being right.

    “The objective is to make Poles vote the right way and choose the right government.”

    Pshah! That’s crazy! They would never put in a government, then attack that government to cause another Prime Minister to be installed from the Banking Industry just 45 days later, so they can “vote right” and “choose right”, re-capturing them back for the WEF and EU, right London? It’s just crazy that someone like me could even suggest it!

    “Google and Microsoft Hit by Slowing Economy (BBC)”

    All the FANGS have dropped, including Tesla, but the Dow rises. Uh-huh. Housing has fastest decline ever and the Dow rises, holding above 30,000. Uh-huh. Facebook cut in half and the indexes it is part of rises. Huh. On a totally unrelated note, Switzerland is the biggest holder of U.S. stocks, especially Apple. Don’t know why that popped up just now. Probably nothing.

    “diesel supplies were “unacceptably low” and that President Joe Biden’s administration had “all options” on the table to reduce prices.”

    Having never heard of markets, this all made sense to them. The people, having never read of capitalism in school, agreed. Okay, very slowly now: Biden’s price reduction…A) raises supply or B) lowers supply? HIGHER prices INCREASE supply. LOWER supply INCREASES prices.

    As with other price controls he can pick EITHER low prices OR supply, but not both. But markets would exist under “Capitalism,” and we don’t have that.

    “History, most recently the Arab Spring and Colour Revolutions, shows that a dangerous political void is more likely than liberalisation.”

    Yes, but you have a meta-assumption that they prefer peace. They do not. The goal is to exhaust the world with hardship and conflict, so people will say yes to “Build Back Better” under their new Maitreya.

    “The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other. Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion.

    We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view. This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time.”

    Does that look like any strategy you see anywhere today? Any questions?

    Unless you know it’s a RELIGION, you can’t understand it.

    “Over the last several months, I have described the demands of climate activists as fanatical”

    It’s a RELIGION. Fanatics are a term reserved for religions. That is: people of faith and belief, not discussion and objective evidence.

    “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” ― Voltaire

    Do we see both? And can we imagine a goal where making people believe only absurdities and commit constant atrocities is a winning tactic?

    “[The people will] be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Our Religion (Lucifer, Apollo, the Light Bearer), brought finally out” Who wouldn’t want that? He has the word “Light” right in the name! Love and Light, children.

    But it’s just a couple crazies, not the top influencers of most major parties:
    “Saul Alinsky wrote an epigraph describing the rebellious angel Lucifer as “the first radical known to man” in his book “Rules for Radicals.” –Snopes

    “Flanked by Dr. Anthony Fauci who still got the disease after four boosters…”

    GoOn

    AFKTT Or like the brothers in Oz, “Who can stand in the way when there’s a dollar to be made?”

    #119422
    Red
    Participant

    COPPER🧵redux. I live near one of the largest copper mines on earth (Kennecott Utah Copper – KUC). I helped manage a smaller copper mine for 8 years. Observation: Wind/Solar/Battery Proponents & ESG bean-counters are completely out of touch with copper mining & production.

    #119423
    Red
    Participant

    Is “Renewable Energy” Renewable?
    Part 1: PV & Polysilicon

    “All Words are Pegs to Hang Ideas On”
    –Henry Ward Beecher

    Labels are powerful. In energy, there is none more consequential than “renewable.” But straining to avoid carbon, we’ve swallowed a camel. A🧵/1

    #119424
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    Another great rant from Black Pigeon

    The SYSTEM PIG Abetting Political Psychopathy


    Wildlife photo OP alert

    Nazilensky Speaks!!!

    .

    #119425
    zerosum
    Participant

    Bubble makers – Motivators – Conflicts
    Pick one/winner
    1. Health (Respiratory virus, Omicron)
    2. Wars/conflicts (USA, Russia, China, Iran)
    3. Diminishing affordable energy
    4. Profits (the Dow rises)
    ———
    War tool – Unmanned vehicle – drones, observation, attack, data gathering,
    ————
    there is “no proof”
    According to USA,
    1. Only seven nations expressed support for Russia: Belarus, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela.
    2. 31 countries are helping Ukraine
    ————

    Satyajit Das: A Disordered World – Part 1: Fracture


    Satyajit Das: A Disordered World – Part 1: Fracture
    Posted on October 26, 2022 by Yves Smith

    This part examines current great geopolitical divisions. The second and third part, which will appear on Thursday October 27 and Friday October 28, will look at key vulnerabilities and possible trajectories respectively.
    ———–

    #119426

    Yuval Harari (picked up by Hal Turner): “You have this small elite which pushes its own interests even if it doesn’t benefit the vast majority of the population. This has happened so many times in history and it is probably going to happen again. One of the biggest dangers to the planet today is this technological utopia, because- probably for the elite, it will work. If bad comes to worse- when the flood comes- the scientists will build a Noah’s ark for the elite, leaving the rest to drown (the rest of the people and the rest of the ecosystem) but they are likely to be able to construct this technological Noah’s ark- which is probably what much of the elitists is counting on…”

    I have asked here before: if the people who destroyed the world were the ones who survived the destruction- is that okay? At least some “humans” will survive?

    #119427

    Oh yeah, Dali was 14 when he painted that. We’ve had a few of his early works recently, but this one looks especially strong.

    #119428
    John Day
    Participant

    The 2020 COVID had the original 1/2020 Wuhan spike protein, which attached to ACE-2 receptors in the blood-vessel linings and caused blood clots, the same as it does now if you get a gene-therapy product which induces your cells to make this historic spike protein.
    It was clearly the case that blood-vessel inflammation in the lungs was driving the pneumonias and inability to oxygenate the blood. It was different and new, but it is now understood.
    Current COVID does not do this, but is very infectious.
    “Things are different today…”

    #119429
    John Day
    Participant

    “Thinking Like A Forest” blog post is up https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/thinking-like-a-forest

    Ugo Bardi asks if “holobionts”, which we are, and which a forest also is, can “think”. Obviously our modes of problem-solving are different, but exist to benefit the furtherance of life. To what degree might humans “think-together”, I wonder. We are different from trees, without interlacing root-networks, but we clearly act in concert for mutual survival and adaptation.
    Can Holobionts Think?
    ​ ​I started this chapter by examining trees and forests as holobionts, then looking at human beings. Trees and humans are as alien to each other as we could possibly imagine. Humans are mobile creatures with an extravagantly powerful metabolism that makes them able to sustain protracted efforts longer than any other living animal. That turbo-charged metabolism is also used to maintain their large brains, of which they are very proud. They use their brains to control their muscles and their sophisticated sensory apparatus, as well as to deal with each other in complicated social rituals.
    ​ ​Trees are the opposite in almost all respects: they are immobile, their metabolism is slow: and they can’t even control their internal temperature. They don’t have eyes, nerves, brains, and not even muscles. Yet, they move, they sense their environment mainly by chemical signals, but also visual and mechanical ones — including vibrations in the acoustic frequency. They “know” what’s going on around them, but in ways that are mostly alien to mobile mammals, including humans.
    https://theproudholobionts.blogspot.com/2022/10/can-holobiont-think.html

    ​ NYC Firemen, police, and garbage collectors, reinstated with back-pay.
    New York Supreme Court reinstates all employees fired for being unvaccinated, orders backpay
    State Supreme Court found that being vaccinated ‘does not’ stop the spread of COVID-19
    https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-york-supreme-court-reinstates-all-employees-fired-being-unvaccinated-orders-backpay

    ​ Charles Hugh Smith points out the weaknesses of forced-growth economy, impossible to continue on a finite planet.
    Stuff is running out, like oil and copper. (Lead is surprisingly rare.)​
    People in developed countries have everything they need already, so failure modes have to be engineered into products to make them break in a few years, so people buy new ones.
    People who do need stuff can’t buy what they need.
    Throughout the prior history of human economy, things made more sense and more efficiently provided for human needs with what was available. (Yes, it was much more human-effort to keep living.)
    http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-end-of-growth-road.html

    #119430
    John Day
    Participant

    Economy = Oil. It’s almost perfectly true, a very good approximation.

    IEA: The Current Energy Crisis Is Unprecedented
    The executive director of the International Energy Agency has said that the world is currently in the middle of the first truly global energy crisis.
    Natural gas markets are particularly tight, and they are set to worsen next year as demand climbs and Europe struggles to replace Russian pipeline gas.
    As well as being more expensive than pipeline gas, the lack of infrastructure to import LNG to Europe is resulting in delivery delays.
    https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/IEA-The-Current-Energy-Crisis-Is-Unprecedented.html

    ​Refinery executives say that shuttered US refineries will not be reopened despite maximal utilization this year, and in face of ongoing shortfalls in refined products like diesel. It has already been pointed out that this is a 30 year investment to make a new refinery, and nobody can make that investment at all these days.​
    https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Energy-Execs-Tell-Granholm-Shuttered-US-Oil-Refineries-Wont-Restart.htmlAmerican

    #119431
    John Day
    Participant

    ​The 24 hour letter from 30 Congressional Democrats to President Biden to please negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine “died suddenly”.​ Why would this withdrawal-of-peace-request happen? Isn’t this about avoiding nuclear holocaust?
    “They waited to get about 30 and released,” one source texted The Hill on Tuesday morning, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal negotiations. “Didn’t consider election timing.”
    A House aide said the letter was “circulated for signatures” in June. “We aren’t sure why it was released now.”
    Progressive Caucus withdraws letter on Ukraine strategy amid blowback – 10/25/22 1:03 PM ET – The Hill
    “The Congressional Progressive Caucus hereby withdraws its recent letter to the White House regarding Ukraine,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the caucus chairwoman, wrote in a statement, representing a stunning shift in their call for a diplomatic push to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
    “The letter was drafted several months ago, but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting. As Chair of the Caucus, I accept responsibility for this,” Jayapal wrote.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/10/the-progressives-in-congress-are-useless-wimps.html#more

    Weapons sent to Ukraine end up on black market – Putin​ And other highlights of recent short speech to the heads of security and special services of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries​:
    ​https://www.azerbaycan24.com/en/weapons-sent-to-ukraine-end-up-on-black-market-putin/

    ​That 7-minute speech with subtitles (subtleties?) is here, quite efficient and to-the-point. Countries are defending themselves from US/NATO hybrid warfare attacks. ​http://thesaker.is/vladimir-putin-addresses-russian-security-council-october-26-2022-eng-subtitles/

    #119432
    John Day
    Participant

    This came at a time when Russia and NATO were both carrying out nuclear-war-games in Europe. Who “might” benefit?
    I have seen it postulated that such a dirty bomb or other mass destruction could befall Kherson, to prevent Russia from advancing to Odessa this winter and taking the whole Black Sea coast.
    SCOTT RITTER: Russia’s ‘Dirty Bomb’ Scare

    SCOTT RITTER: Russia’s ‘Dirty Bomb’ Scare

    US doubles down on ‘dirty bomb’ denial
    The Pentagon chief has rejected “false allegations by Russia about Ukraine,” describing them as a pretext for escalation
    https://www.rt.com/news/565288-us-denial-dirty-bomb-ukraine/

    Moscow urges UN probe into Ukrainian biolabs
    Russia has filed an official complaint over US-backed biological activities in Ukraine​
    ​ ​In June, the Pentagon published the ‘Fact Sheet on WMD Threat Reduction Efforts with Ukraine, Russia and Other Former Soviet Union Countries’. The US military claimed that following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Washington has “worked collaboratively to improve Ukraine’s biological safety, security, and disease surveillance for both human and animal health,” by providing support to “46 peaceful Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and disease diagnostic sites over the last two decades.” These programs have allegedly focused on “improving public health and agricultural safety measures at the nexus of nonproliferation.”
    https://www.rt.com/news/565341-russia-un-ukraine-biological-laboratories/

    As winter approaches, both Russia and Ukraine bulk up their forces in preparation for decisive battles
    Moscow’s military mobilization means that Kiev is set to lose its vast numerical advantage. How will this play out on the battlefields?
    https://www.rt.com/russia/565235-sergey-poletaev-as-winter-approaches/

    #119433
    WES
    Participant

    I have noticed that the Ukraine Nazis no longer can afford to use any of their Nazi soldiers in front line roles as they are now being used solely to force non-Nazi Ukrainians soldiers to die on the front lines.

    Ukrainians are no longer able to mobilize large army size armies but are now restricted to organizing only battalion or company size attacks.

    Clearly the Ukrainians/Nato/US don’t have enough Nazis left to to be everywhere at once, along the 1,000 km battle front. Ukrainian daily casualties have dropped significantly as a result of a lack of Nazis enforcers. If there are 100,000 Nazis left, that means only 100 Nazis enforcers per kilometer.

    This change in the war has allowed Russia to wage a successful static artillery war otherwise known as the meat grinder. Unfortunately they are no longer killing many Nazis, just ordinary Ukrainians.

    General Mud is nicely providing the Russians the time they need to mobilize more troops.

    Clearly Russia is still dictating how the Ukrainians are reacting.

    General Winter comes after General Mud.

    As for the the Ukrainian’s US handlers in the US, they are clearly going ever more bat crazy, slowly but surely losing touch with reality, and starting to believe in their own propaganda. They have kept loosening their previous levels of restraints by introducing more and more lethal weapons into the war. It seems they are sans adult supervision. This is the scary part. I doubt they will know when to stop.

    This might be why Russia is mobilizing a larger army, to end the war quickly?

    #119434
    Noirette
    Participant

    On: The Collective West + what is going on..

    Some call it Late-stage capitalism, heh, competition eats everyone up. (Say, one brief descr.) For ex. if one has for-profit health care ppl become unhealthy and desperate and aren’t no longer super fit workers.

    Some call it Fascism, an authoritarian type dictator partnership between Big Corps and State institutions (who become subservient) – a kind of centrist madness. Often hate of others, some kind of out-group(s), has to be fired up for a kind of hysterical adherence to the Capos.

    Some call it Energy Crisis – the USuk-isr and Europe have been facing, for a while now, the expectation of higher, very high, energy prices – not directly / uniquely caused by the Ukr. matter (which has only exaberated it, used as an excuse..) but a long standing trend, the result of so-called ‘peak’ oil, gas, the inefficient, illusory performance of ‘renewables’, e.g. wind, solar. —> US fracking is stuttering; Europe is hugely energy dependent, its own ressources are clapped out, from the N. Sea, to Norway, etc . Imports become scarcer, dry up ..

    Some call it stupid, ill-advised, short-term economic policy, note that the “W” has de-industralised, by off-shoring and outsourcing manufacturing to China, other Asia, poor countries, to profit from low labor prices, looking virtuous by exporting pollution, etc. Concentrating on financial matters and control, ‘tech innovation’ and the like, to lord it over everyone. This is close to the ‘late-stage capitalism’ argument.

    Some see a kind of spiritual rot, with decadence, like in Rome, taking over – Satan is here amongst us. Yes.

    #119435
    zerosum
    Participant

    NATO Set To Attack Tiraspol?


    (Is), NATO Set To Attack Tiraspol?

    Transnistria, with its Russian base at Tiraspol, is located directly in-between Romania and Odessa. This presents a problem for any NATO intentions for Odessa.

    Transnistria, as an unrecognized breakaway province of Moldova, has been defended by Russia since 1994 or so, and would be seen as fair game by NATO, which doesn’t seem to worry about the rules, anyway.
    ——–
    https://www.bing.com/search?q=Transnistria&cvid=8bc0bd7968fe44deb509c0b74fa6bac9&aqs=edge.0.69i59j0l8.11935j0j1&pglt=299&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=U531
    ———
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobasna_ammunition_depot

    The Cobasna ammunition depot has been referred to as one of the largest[2] if not the largest ammunition depot in Eastern Europe[1] and contains up to 20,000 tons of Soviet-era weapons from the 14th Guards Army of the USSR and also from the former states of Czechoslovakia and East Germany. Currently, it is guarded by around 1,500 Russian soldiers. Ever since Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, there has been growing distress in Moldova for the Cobasna ammunition depot, with some believing that the weapons there could be used in a potential future military conflict. Additionally, the Academy of Sciences of Moldova determined that an explosion of the weapons located in the ammunition depot, which passed their expiry date long ago, would be equivalent to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[2] Concern for such an event increased following the 2020 Beirut explosion.[1]

    On 27 April 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Transnistria reported that drones flew over Cobasna and that shots were fired on the village. The ministry claimed that the drones came from Ukraine. Several attacks had recently occurred in Transnistria at the time.[7] They occurred during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and may have been a false flag operation by Russia or Transnistria itself.[8]

    7. “Moldova’s separatist Transdniester claims ‘drones seen, shots fired’ near huge ammo depot”. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 27 April 2022.
    8. “Possible ‘false flag’ attacks in separatist Moldovan region of Transnistria raises concerns Russia plans to expand conflict”. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 27 April 2022.
    ———

    #119436
    Bishko
    Participant

    “Biden ended his speech by getting the COVID-19 booster shot live on camera.”

    I’m pretty sure that it was only a saline injection. Too much at stake to have him keel over.

    It’s beginning to look like bigger and bigger “things” are becoming “disposable”.
    Ukraine has become a disposable country where money laundering by large countries and corporations have been having a field day. All world leaders are now disposable as well. BoJo, Truss, Biden &c. Their expiration dates are all determined by their aggressive usefulness, and by their handlers. If the power brokers need some law passed or some egregious thing done, they just put someone in place, get er done, and then have him or her removed by the outrage that ensues. They are “paid” for their service by a nice platinum parachute. In the past a lot of this was “hidden” and they got away with it (1913 Federal Reserve vote at Christmas). For those who are found out, they are quietly, or noisily shuffled off and the game continues.

    This was learned by the power brokers by their long history of putting people in power and then rewarding them with wine, women and song, all the while flensing their country of natural resources and influence. The Congo comes to mind as well as all the other countries where the “natural” leaders were ousted by our CIA and satellite groups.

    I am horrified and disgusted by what the “leaders” (handlers) of my country have become. I used to struggle to not be ashamed to be an American. I realize that I could not have done anything to change the unsavory outcome before us.

    #119437
    Dora
    Participant

    Another article from Denninger:
    Doctors Are Stupid
    “Without carbon-based fuels which are the feedstock for fertilizers, not counting the use of carbon fuels for sowing seed, tilling fields, harvest and transportation, all of which absolutely rely on said carbon based fuels and cannot be deferred when they need to be done because the sun isn’t out or the wind isn’t blowing right now, that is just accounting for fertilizers made from same, yields would drop by at least a quarter and perhaps by as much as half, especially in equatorial and European regions. Here in the United States the reduction is estimated, on a conservative basis, somewhere around 30%.

    “In other words if you think a few million people being “screwed” by carbon fuel use is bad somewhere in the neighborhood of two to three billion people would die of hunger if we were to stop using carbon-based fuels and that’s just the fertilizer, not accounting for the use of carbon fuels (and the machinery they power) to sow, till, maintain, harvest, transport and keep safe for consumption (you know, refrigerate) said foods.”

    https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=247276

    #119438
    Dora
    Participant

    New Climate Tool (Part 4)

    #119439
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    There’s plenty of climate misinformation out there to recycle into false narratives.

    Or the same misinformation can be repeated at regular intervals.

    After all, most people have extraordinarily short memories. That’s if they ever read what is written. Or understand it.

    So, we see that ‘water vapour causes more warming than CO2’ narrative has been regurgitated.

    Yeah. True, Except that water vapour can never be a primary driver of warming (overheating) because it changes phase in the temperature ranges experienced on Earth and in the atmosphere.

    Water vapour condenses into rain, or the molecules coalesce directly into the ice phase (hail/snow/ice crystals). And ice has close to zero vapour pressure, whilst rain has an extraordinarily low vapour pressure, which is why it forms at the temperature it does, just like steam condenses coming out of a boiling kettle.

    On the other hand, CO2 gas remains as CO2 gas over all temperature ranges experienced, and continues to absorb and re-radiate in the IR day and night everywhere.

    And CO2 continues to be absorbed by rain, lakes, seas and oceans, depressing the pH, and messing up biochemistry.

    What is more, the current atmospheric CO2 concentration is 415/230 = 180% of the long-term average. Even calculating from the elevated pre-industrial of 280ppm we get 415/280 = 148%

    If something had changed by 48% in any other field except climate science, that would be considered significant. But for climate change deniers, that essential truth is just too bad. So they then try to circumvent the argument by telling us that hundreds of millions of years ago CO2 levels were much higher. or the ridiculous narratives that CO2 is a plant nutrient. Or that there is hardly enough CO2 for plants to grow, despite the CO2 level being severely elevated.

    They never include the fact that there were no humans hundreds of millions of years ago when CO2 in the atmosphere levels were much higher, or that the current atmospheric CO2 level corresponds to seas and oceans being around 25 metres higher than at present– the only reason that seas and oceans are not 25 metres higher right now being the time delay of cause and effect, there being so much ice to melt and deep cold water to warm up.

    But we must never allow scientific facts to interfere with politically driven [faux] narratives, must we?

    By the same token all official narratives are false, faux, phony, fabricated nonsense, as genuine as the faux fur coats manufactured from synthetic fibres in Asia and died with synthetic dyes to look leopard skins.

    All official narratives are false, faux, phony, fabricated nonsense means:

    ‘Freedom and democracy’ in the concentration camp.

    GDP ‘as a measure of progress’.

    ‘Money’ created out of thin air by banks which have no reserves.

    ‘Sustainable development’ as a way out of the mess the psychopaths have created.

    ‘Voting’, so that occupants of the concentration camp can choose which psychopaths will mislead them and abuse them in the future.

    Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera…

    Next May atmospheric CO2 will be 425 ppm or thereabouts, and the oceans will be a little more acidic.

    There will be less cheap-to-extract oil available.

    Industrial Civilisation will continue to fall off the EROEI curve.

    More resources will be expended fighting unwinnable wars, waged by the psychopaths on competing groups and in fighting the laws of mathematics, physics and chemistry.

    #119440
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    As WES has pointed out, things are going badly in the front line. Paid mercenaries from Poland and Romania lost their enthusiasm when confronted with the reality if fighting Russians, and refused to advance. Neo-Nazi bullies were sent in to ‘persuade them’, resulting in a fire fight and the death of a few of the neo-Nazi bullies.

    #119441
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    The Russians blowing the cover of the Ukrainians has likely caused a backtrack on the ‘dirty bomb’ false flag plans.

    Sanctions are to be imposed on Belarus now that the Euronazis have run out of Russian stuff to sanction. The desperation of lunatics.

    #119442
    Redneck
    Participant

    The Salafists hate Shia shrines to their saints.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/gunmen-storm-iranian-pilgrimage-site-major-attack-15-dead-40-injured
    The Iranian’s have had enough.

    #119443
    Redneck
    Participant

    The Russians go full out big brother on their school kids . The Rona scam has provided the perfect window to create high tech facial recognition and movement monitoring program.

    “How it will work in the school year: the child puts a magnetic key on the door to enter the school grounds, then in the hall he goes to the turnstile, which identifies the student. The same Face ID system measures the temperature of each visitor and only allows them to go to school when normal. If the temperature of the child is elevated, the parents will be called and asked to take them home. Now a mechanism is being worked out, with the help of which parents will be able to monitor the child during the day, to observe his movements.”
    “A secondary school in Moscow took a similar route to ensure public health by purchasing a state-of-the-art “thermographic complex.”

    The facial recognition system can monitor multiple people at the same time, allowing administrators to “promptly find a [suspected biohazard] in a crowd of students in order to send him for an additional examination or contact his parents to pick him up.”
    https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/biosecurity-grooming?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    #119444
    Redneck
    Participant

    “Majority owned by the Russian government, the bank is headed by an ethnic German named Herman Gref (Hermann Gräf in his native tongue), a member of the World Economic Forum’s board of trustees and also a member of JP Morgan’s International Council.

    Gref played a key role in the creation of Sputnik V—key really being the key word here. He even claims to be one of the first people in the entire world to be injected with Russia’s flagship clot-shot, two months before Phase I trials started.

    In September 2020, Gref decided he wanted to branch out and create SberEverything.”

    https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/russias-creepiest-bank-is-cattle?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web

    #119445
    Alexander Carpenter
    Participant

    Once again, EVERYTHING that AFAIK is saying about climate is either just dead wrong or irrelevant. Either he is a shill for some seductive power-bloc, a Climate Cult religious nut, or willfully ignorant on this issue. There is a sufficiency of accurate, non-panic-porn, genuine-science information readily available; perhaps AFAIK needs the neurotic certainty that contemporary climate science cannot deliver — impeded, as it is, by politicization and complexity. But progress is being made, and it isn’t leading anywhere near the “reasonable” fantasies AFAIK prattles on about.
    Ironically, the best estimates of future climate are consonant with the paleo-climate record of the past 5000 years that is leading us down into another glaciation.
    Well shiver my timbers, Matey,
    The mystery remains why AFAIK can be so incisive in his skepticism of the political Standard Narrative while at the same time be such a fatuous science-denier about our actual understanding of climate variability, and a vapid toady to the climate-panic energy-control aspects of that Narrative. Puzzling…
    I reckon that some people just cannot be consistent in applying their intelligence, and have belief-bound blind-spots in their worldview. Sad…

    #119446
    aspnaz
    Participant

    As Russia Gets Weaker, Xi Jinping May Forgo Taiwan To Grab Eastern Russia

    Craig Hooper obviously has no qualms about being judged a total idiot. This is the most ridiculous scenario I have seen proposed as yet. Does Craig understand why China’s Xi wants Taiwan? Does he understand that KMT ran away to Taiwan and as a result they made Taiwan the target of the PRC regime?

    The Taiwan question is interesting because it is about the KMT, not about Taiwan as a whole, but of course Taiwan as a whole will suffer. Taiwan contains three main groups of people: aboriginal Taiwanese, long time Chinese who’s families emigrated to Taiwan 100+ years ago, some so long ago that they do not know, and the KMT who emigrated since 1949. The KMT people are mostly in and around Taipei, which means the north of Taiwan tends to vote KMT while the rest of the country – which has no skin in the CCP revolution – votes for independence. The KMT party is pro-unification, mostly because the KMT people left their home towns to escape to Taiwan and would like to see them unified. Of course, the majority want independence because they were living very happily in Taiwan before the KMT arrived. They do not see why reason why China should take over Taiwan just because the KMT used it as a safe haven. So, mainland China has support for unification in Taiwan.

    China invading Eastern Russia is completely bonkers unless I am not aware of a historical reason for China to do such a crazy move, taking over its ally using military rather than business. China’s track record is to take over using cash, why would that change?

    #119447
    aspnaz
    Participant

    You know we are in trouble when former Donald Trump is the voice of reason.

    Chris Hedges has TDS, it is seeping through his skin, I assume his social circle all expect each other to behave like children when the opportunity to bash Trump presents itself. Such a clueless approach files his writing in the garbage. Trump did the USA a great service, he forced the deep state to show itself to such a degree that the overt corruption made the USA look like the third-world. None of us know him as a person, but he was obviously not the candidate that the deep state wanted and the result was very telling. Anyone who bashes him with TDS is basically backing the deep state, succumbing to their emotional manipulation to hate Trump and then into their excuses for blocking Trump and unseating a duly elected POTUS. These people are the enemy of good people everywhere.

    #119448
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Club Orlov speaks:

    Ukrainian Made Simple

    “More and more people in the West are beginning to scratch their heads wondering why they should be suffering with sky-high inflation, unaffordable utility bills, unruly mobs of freeloading Ukrainian migrants.

    The more probing minds are puzzled over the amazing speed at which the Ukrainian government swallows up vast sums of money being sent to it with nothing to show for it even as public services in the West are failing due to a lack of funds…..

    or why all of NATO is quickly being stripped of numerous kinds of weapons systems, which are being shipped off in the Ukrainian direction and are then either destroyed, sold to third parties around the world, or are taken as trophies by the Russians, while inflation is making their replacements unaffordable.

    Some people are starting to think that this is all a ploy to enrich the Biden clan and stuff its political campaign coffers in order to forestall a disastrous political defeat by vote-buying and fraud at the poles while keeping Biden’s son Hunter supplied with drugs and underage Ukrainian prostitutes,….

    hahahaha

    The senile meat muppet’s cokehead son get 80k a month to sit on a Ukronazi ‘gas company’.

    Nothing to see, keep moving….

    #119449
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Alexander Mercouris hits it out of the park again.

    Another day of massive missile attacks on the Ukronazi electrical power network.

    The Russians are probing the Ukronazi electric grid. Each time the Uk’s try to repair it, the Russians take note and knock it out again. Deconstructing the infrastructure to later completely knock it out.

    Russia Wrests Initiative from Ukraine, Advances on Liman, Conducts Nuclear Drills,Threatens Starlink

    #119450
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    Hmmm.

    Ukraine is a testing ground for weapons systems. Reminiscent of the Spanish Civil War which I don’t personaly remember. That helped promote WW2.

    Now we have nuclear threats being thrown around. Very reminiscent of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which I do presonally remember. That passed, but what might this Ukrainian Missile Crisis lead to?

    Randy Newman’s song, “Political Science,” seems morbidly relevant Here’s some:

    Boom goes London, boom Paree,
    More room for you, and more room for me
    And every city, the whole world ’round
    Will just be another American town
    Oh, how peaceful it’ll be
    We’ll set everybody free
    You wear a Japanese kimono, babe
    There’ll be Italian shoes for me

    They all hate us anyhow
    So let’s drop the big one now
    Let’s drop the big one now.

    #119451
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    Oh man, is my typing ever deteriorating…

    #119452
    aspnaz
    Participant

    The US military will unleash its full arsenal, including nuclear weapons, to protect South Korea and Japan from attack

    Another lie. No country will sacrifice its very existence to defend another country. That is the problem with a NATO that is all about nuclear defence. The costs are so great that no nation could ever make such an agreement and stick to it. The idea of NATO works with conventional weapons, the politicians don’t care if someone else’s child dies in a war, but if there is a chance of their entire country, including their home and family, being nuked, then that is a different game. The whole idea of a nuclear NATO is absurd and I am sure that Europe – the Europe being destroyed by their NATO ally the USA – do not believe a word of this lie, especially from the agreement-incapable USA.

    #119453
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    Another thought: if nukes do start popping up, that’s the end of the Australian electricity grid. I don’t think it’s been made EMP-proof at all.

    And likely the end of the US grid too, or at least of enough of it to make life horrendous for huge numbers of people.

    And the European grid(s). Ditto.

    Are we committing electrical suicide?

    #119455
    Dora
    Participant

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