Oct 042022
 
 October 4, 2022  Posted by at 8:52 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Pablo Picasso Cafe Royan [The Coffee] 1940

 

Developing Developments (Kunstler)
The Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Sabotage (Monkeywerx)
Macgregor: US Likely Attacked Nord Stream Pipelines to Isolate Germany (SN)
In Nord Stream Attack, US Sees ‘A Tremendous Opportunity’ (Maté)
Jeffrey Sachs Offers Nord Stream Theory (RT)
Medvedev Comments On Musk’s Ukraine Proposal (RT)
Duma Ratifies Accession Treaties For Donbass, Kherson, Zaporozhye (RT)
Kremlin Comments On Borders Of New Territories (RT)
Kiev’s Counter Attacks On Kherson Have Failed – Official (RT)
British Intelligence Predicted Ukraine War 30 Years Ago (Dec.uk)
Ukraine Grain Deal Not Enough – Moscow (RT)
Belgium Suffers Unplanned Nuclear Reactor Shutdown (RT)
Ukraine Scolds EU Over Aid Delays (RT)
Truss Exposes The Inherent Instability Of Western Democracies (Hryce)
Trump Seeks $475 Million In Defamation Suit Against CNN (ZH)
Hunter Biden Probe to Look Into ‘What Happened in 2020’: Jim Jordan (ET)
The Biggest Problem China Faces Isn’t Real Estate (Balding)

 

 

Best amicus brief ever?!

 

 

Tucker regime change

 

 

 

 

Greenwald Donbass

 

 

Hey! Sanctions!

 

 

 

 

“The Russian negotiation table is open for business. Failing to report to it, Ukraine will have to decide what sort of rump state it will become — a merely half-assed agricultural backwater or a fully ass-blown-off failed state.”

Developing Developments (Kunstler)

What no government official can acknowledge — even among the Euroland victim nations of this awesome stupidity — is that the US demolition of the Nord Streams was an act-of-war against our own allies. By the way, the blogger who styles himself as “Monkey Werx,” notable for tracking the world-wide military flight movements, presents a comprehensive play-by-play of just exactly how the mission was accomplished. I’ll summarize but you can read his full report (click here) for yourself. MW reports that overnight on the 26th of September, a Navy P8 Poseidon submarine-hunter jet flew out of the US to the Baltic. It did not land in the UK to refuel — thus avoiding any tracking complications — but rather rendezvoused over Grudziadz, Poland, with a US Bart-12 mid-air refueling plane, which it hooked up with for more than an hour.

The P8 was equipped with Mk54 air-launched torpedoes. After un-docking from the Bart-12 refueler, the P8 followed a route west along the Nord Stream pipelines, descended to bomb-run altitude, and dropped its weapons. Kaboom. Then, fully refueled, the P8 flew directly back to the USA. Days later, when confronted at the UN by Russia with a yes-or-no question as to US responsibility for the Nord Stream caper, the US representatives refused to answer one way or another. Cute. So, the questions loom: How many more days before Germany and the rest of Euroland begin to apprehend how they have been hosed by America into an economic collapse scenario? (How many days before a team of competent professionals hunts down Klaus Schwab and his colleagues somewhere in Switzerland?) When will the Eurofolk turn on their idiot government leaders and flush them out of office?

When will all (except for psychotic Poland) bail out of the USA’s Ukraine crusade? I will tell you: this will all begin pretty darn soon. And if so, that will be the end of the NATO alliance. Meanwhile, the US-led propaganda campaign has Russia utterly on-the-ropes against a raging and triumphant Ukraine army. Nothing could be further from the truth. Russia made a few tactical retreats the past month in preparation for a final systematic and methodical mopping-up of the remaining Ukraine army. Russia is bringing in Iskander hypersonic missiles, not necessarily nuclear-armed, and will assemble Russian army regulars to replace the mash-up of Donbas militia volunteers who have borne the brunt on the thinly defended line leading to the much talked-about tactical retreat around the Kharkov-Izium-Lyman front. The Russian negotiation table is open for business. Failing to report to it, Ukraine will have to decide what sort of rump state it will become — a merely half-assed agricultural backwater or a fully ass-blown-off failed state.

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“..why fly an aircraft all the way from the United States and not land in the UK for refueling, but instead hook up for an hour plus with another US Air Force refueler out of Germany?”

The Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Sabotage (Monkeywerx)

As we sit here today, October 1, 2022, the United States has no official statement on the sabotage although Biden is pushing the standard doublespeak rhetoric and as they say, the best defense is a good offense. There is, however, an official release from the White House back in February 2022 that states the United States will take further action with Germany to end the Nord Stream Pipeline 2. So let’s look at the flight data logically… The United States has Navy P8’s stationed in the UK so why fly an aircraft all the way from the United States and not land in the UK for refueling, but instead hook up for an hour plus with another US Air Force refueler out of Germany? Could it be that the UK’s new Prime Minister would not condone the activity?

We have already seen her call out Nancy Pelosi who we know is a bobblehead and not in line with the New World Order, and we know the new UK PM is indeed a WEF appointee which is part of the NWO. Clearly, the United States did not want to land in the UK or anywhere else for a reason. Could it also be because it was armed with external weapons or they didn’t want any record of the aircraft in the area? Landing would create a log and even though we see them wipe the flight record data, the airport log is still intact. Let’s talk about the P8 weaponry for a minute. The Navy P8 Poseiden has 11 external hardpoints for mounting weapons as well as an internal bomb bay, and one weapon, in particular, is a High Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Weapon Capability (HAAWC) system. HAAWC is an all-weather add-on glide kit that enables the Mk54 torpedo to be launched near or below the cruising altitude of the P8 Poseidon.

What that means: the flight path and altitude of the P8 in question are indeed capable of conducting a “bomb run” on the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. Now let’s look at the flight specifics. Note the last flight path just before exiting the area runs right along the pipeline in which they could have released the ordinance and continued their climb out, thus exiting the area and returning to the United States. Also, note the little hump just before the climb out (red arrow). That is consistent with a weapons release. Pitch down, increased AoA, weapon release, little bubble up, then a climb out (the blue line is the inbound leg of the same flight). You may also not the flight path. It circles over the area first, then flies downrange and starts the initial bomb run, then it does a quick readjustment on a final bomb run, releases, and exits immediately.

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“You have several inches of concrete around various metal alloys to move the natural gas. So it’s not something that you could simply drop a grenade down at the end of a fish line and disrupt. ”

Macgregor: US Likely Attacked Nord Stream Pipelines to Isolate Germany (SN)

A former Pentagon advisor says the most likely culprits behind the Nord Stream pipeline blasts are the United States and Britain, and that the attack was carried out to prevent Germany from bailing on the war in Ukraine. Retired US Army colonel Douglas Macgregor made the comments during an appearance on the Judging Freedom podcast. Macgregor said a process of elimination rules out Germany, because they are dependent on Nord Stream for their energy security, while it also served no benefit for Russia to have sabotaged its own infrastructure. “Would the Russians destroy their own pipeline? 40 percent of Russian gross national product or GDP consists of foreign currency that comes into the country to purchase natural gas, oil, coal and so forth. So the Russians did not do this. The notion that they did I think is absurd,” Macgregor said.

Referring to Polish MEP Radoslaw Sikorski’s infamous deleted tweet in which he wrote, “Thank you, USA,” Macgregor noted, “Who else might be involved? Well the Poles apparently seem to be very enthusiastic about it.” However, citing reports that more than 500 kg of TNT had been detected in both explosions, the former Pentagon advisor suggested only the United States and British Royal Navy had the capability to pull off the attack. “Then you have to look at who are the state actors that have the capability to do this. And that means the Royal Navy, the United States Navy Special Operations,” said Macgregor. “I think that’s pretty clear. We know that thousands of pounds of TNT were used because these pipelines are enormously robust. You have several inches of concrete around various metal alloys to move the natural gas. So it’s not something that you could simply drop a grenade down at the end of a fish line and disrupt. That means it takes a certain amount of sophistication,” he added.

Macgregor suggested that the motive behind the attacks was to prevent Germany from bailing on the Ukraine war after Berlin began “to give the impression that they were no longer going to go along with this proxy war in Ukraine.” “I’m hesitant to say ‘we know it must have been Washington’. I can’t say that because we just don’t know. But it’s very clear that we have foreclosed Berlin’s options. Berlin was drifting away from this alliance. [Chancellor] Olaf Scholz said ‘I’m not sending any more equipment, I won’t send any tanks’. Now he’s in a bind because the United States has simply robbed him of the option of bailing out. Who’s going to supply him gas and oil and coal and everything else if he bails out? Where does he turn now? And remember, the Germans, who are facing terrible consequences at home refuse to restart nuclear power plants,” the former official said.

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“Nord Stream 2, Trump declared in July 2018, is a “tragedy.“

In Nord Stream Attack, US Sees ‘A Tremendous Opportunity’ (Maté)

Western sanctions on Russia have already led to job losses, skyrocketing bills, and fears of energy rationing amid forecasts of exceptionally cold temperatures ahead. Just before the Nord Stream blasts, the head of German’s steel federation warned that without Russian energy, “a winter of de-industrialization threatens us in Germany.” Ahead of this feared winter of de-industrialization, Blinken’s optimistic response to a now assured shut-off of Russian gas might seem odd for a top diplomat. But it is perfectly consistent with a longstanding US effort to kill Nord Stream for good. In waging a multi-year campaign against Nord Stream, the US has sought to weaken Russia’s economy; undermine Russian integration with the rest of Europe; preserve lucrative transit fees for the US client state in Ukraine; and increase European dependence on US energy, in particular Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

In short, the “tremendous opportunity” that Blinken draws from the Nord Stream sabotage derives from the very goals that he imputed to Putin: “the weaponization of energy” for “imperial designs.” As one of Blinken’s predecessors, Condoleezza Rice, explained in 2014: “Over the long-run, you simply want to change the structure of energy dependence. You want to depend more on the North America energy platform.” The US drive to promote dependence on North American energy was escalated by President Donald Trump, who imposed sanctions to stop the Nord Stream 2’s construction while urging the German government to buy American LNG instead. Nord Stream 2, Trump declared in July 2018, is a “tragedy.” In his view, “it’s a horrific thing that’s being done, where you’re feeding billions and billions of dollars… primarily from Germany, into the coffers of Russia.”

Trump’s disdain for the “horrific” Russia-Germany energy project strained US relations with both countries. But because his actions contradicted the predominant Russiagate narrative that he was in fact a Kremlin asset being blackmailed to do Vladimir Putin’s bidding, the Nord Stream sanctions were among many confrontational Trump policies toward Russia that went widely ignored at home. Trump’s sanctions on Nord Stream 2 caused such a rift with Germany that Biden, upon taking office, initially waved them. But the Ukraine crisis gave Biden a backdoor opportunity to revive Trump’s quest. As Russian forces amassed on Ukraine’s borders in 2021, Biden pressured Germany to commit to cancelling Nord Stream 2 in the event of an invasion. When the Germans still refused, the White House announced that it would achieve its goal with or without them. “If Russia invades…then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2,” Biden declared on February 7, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at his side. “We will bring an end to it.”

Trump NS2

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Includes Sachs’ role in the Shock Doctrine. Rarely mentioned.

Jeffrey Sachs Offers Nord Stream Theory (RT)

Economist Jeffrey Sachs speculated on Monday that the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines was the work of the US and maybe Poland, to the chagrin of Bloomberg TV hosts who quickly tried to change the subject. Now a professor at Columbia University, Sachs became notorious in Russia for masterminding the “shock therapy” reforms in the 1990s – but has been sharply critical of the West’s approach to the conflict in Ukraine in recent months. Invited to Bloomberg’s ‘Surveillance’ show on Monday, Sachs was asked to comment on Russia he “knew so well” under President Boris Yeltsin. Instead, the hosts scrambled to cut him off after he said the conflict is “on the path of escalation to nuclear war” and did not start in February 2022.

“Most of the world doesn’t see it the way we describe it,” Sachs told Bloomberg’s Tom Keene, at which point co-host Lisa Abramowicz tried to change the subject to inflation in Europe. The EU is in a “very sharp economic downturn,” Sachs agreed. The continent was “getting hammered” by energy shortages, made worse by “the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline which I would bet was a US action – perhaps US and Poland,” he managed to add before Keene cut him off, asking for evidence of that claim. “Well first of all, there’s direct radar evidence that US helicopters, military helicopters that are normally based in Gdansk, were circling over this area. We also had the threats from the US, earlier in this year, that ‘one way or the other, we are going to end Nord Stream.’ We also have the remarkable statement by [US] Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken last Friday in a press conference; he says ‘this is also a tremendous opportunity.’ Sorry, it’s a strange way to talk if you’re worried about piracy on international infrastructure of vital significance,” Sachs retorted.

“I know this runs counter to our narrative, you’re not allowed to say these things in the West, but the fact of the matter is – all over the world, when I talk to people, they think the US did it,” he added. Abramowicz again tried to change the subject, saying Bloomberg couldn’t provide “counterbalance” to what he was saying. Undeterred, Sachs answered the next question by describing the current situation as “the most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis” in 1962, with the US picking fights with both Russia and China, without any attempts to de-escalate things. Currently director of the Center for Sustainable Development at New York’s Columbia University, Sachs gained notoriety among the Russians for his “shock therapy” reforms in 1991-1993. The overhaul of the entire Soviet economy ended up destroying the lives of millions of Russians and handing the country’s wealth over to a handful of oligarchs.

Sachs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1576924480135258112

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“Musk sent hundreds of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites and terminals to Ukraine. Though their stated purpose was humanitarian, Kiev has since admitted to using them for the war effort.”

Medvedev Comments On Musk’s Ukraine Proposal (RT)

After Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and Kiev’s online troll army savaged Elon Musk’s proposal for ending the conflict with Russia, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev jokingly called the Tesla and SpaceX founder a “shadowy agent” of the Kremlin, comparing him to Stierlitz, the legendary fictional Soviet spy. “Kudos to [Elon Musk]! However, the shadowy agent has lost the cover. Deserves a new rank, fast. His next tweet will run like, Ukraine is an artificial state. Anticipating…” Medvedev tweeted, in English, on Monday evening. On his Telegram channel, in Russian, instead of “shadowy agent” the former president called Musk “Eustace” – a reference to the code name of the main character in the Soviet-era series ‘17 Moments of Spring,’ better known under his German alias Otto von Stierlitz.


Both references were clearly tongue-in-cheek and poked fun not at Musk, but at the utter hysterics of the Ukrainian government and its online influencers over the American billionaire’s earnest peace proposal. Crimea would remain Russian and have its water supply guaranteed, Ukraine would declare neutrality, and the four regions that just joined Russia hold UN-supervised referendums on their fate, Musk suggested earlier in the day. The poll was quickly swamped by what he called the “biggest bot attack I’ve ever seen.” It wasn’t just Kiev’s info-warriors and their Western NAFO backers, however. Ukraine’s departing ambassador to Germany used some very un-diplomatic language, while President Vladimir Zelensky himself launched a poll asking his followers if they preferred Musk who supported Ukraine over this one, who “supports Russia.” Early on in the conflict, Musk sent hundreds of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites and terminals to Ukraine. Though their stated purpose was humanitarian, Kiev has since admitted to using them for the war effort.

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Russia calmly goes through the legal moves. Important point:

“..accession to Russia is the only way to save the people living in the four former Ukrainian territories from shelling by Ukrainian troops. “The only way to end this is reunification [with Russia],”

Duma Ratifies Accession Treaties For Donbass, Kherson, Zaporozhye (RT)

The State Duma has unanimously ratified the treaties on the accession of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, to the Russian Federation. President Vladimir Putin submitted the documents regarding the four former Ukrainian territories to the lower house of parliament on Sunday. All four voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining Russia in referendums held between September 23 and 27. Addressing legislators before the vote, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that accession will “serve the interests of all people of our multiethnic country.” He added that Kiev had oppressed Russian-speaking people, which made the existence of certain territories within the Ukrainian state impossible.


State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin argued that accession to Russia is the only way to save the people living in the four former Ukrainian territories from shelling by Ukrainian troops. “The only way to end this is reunification [with Russia],” he said. The accession treaties, which were signed by Putin on Friday, were then approved by the Russian Constitutional Court. The next step in the accession process is ratification by the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament. The DPR and LPR broke off from Ukraine shortly after the 2014 coup in Kiev. Russia recognized them as independent states in February.

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Kremlin is mocked in the west for not knowing exactly what they incorporated. No, because they want to be precise. To that end, Lavrov has been given special powers to negotiate borders.

Kremlin Comments On Borders Of New Territories (RT)

Moscow has yet to determine the future borders of Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, which are set to be incorporated into Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told journalists. “We will continue to consult with the residents of those regions on the issue of borders,” the official said on Monday. The two former Ukrainian regions voted last month to break away from Kiev and request being accepted into Russia. However, parts of them are still controlled by Ukrainian troops. The issue of borders came up last week, when President Vladimir Putin signed orders recognizing the two regions’ independence. The documents did not include any reference to the demarcation of the territories. When asked by journalists for clarification, Peskov promised to give an answer later.

Further complicating the situation is the fact that Russian forces are in control of a small chunk of Ukraine’s Nikolaev Region, which borders Kherson Region. Vladimir Saldo, the head of the Kherson administration, claimed last week that the land would be incorporated into Russia. This week, the Russian parliament is scheduled to ratify the unification treaties with the two regions, as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. The latter two territories, which were recognized as independent by Russia in February, are defined “by the 2014 borders,” according to Peskov. Russian troops and Donbass militias have since seized much of the disputed land, but not all of it.

Kiev blasted the referendums that paved the way for the accession as a “sham”and reiterated its intention to defeat Russia on the battlefield and oust its troops from all land that it claims as Ukrainian. Moscow said the ballots were a legitimate exercise of the right to self-determination.

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180º different from western and Kiev stories.

Kiev’s Counter Attacks On Kherson Have Failed – Official (RT)

Attempts by Ukrainian forces to break through Russia’s defenses in Kherson Region have been thwarted, the deputy head of the local administration, Kirill Stremousov, has said. In a Telegram post on Monday, Stremousov stated that “everything is under control in the Nikolayev direction,”despite Kiev’s efforts to retake the region. He noted that Ukraine’s forces had advanced southward along the Dnieper River to the village of Dudchany before “taking a beating” from Russian Aerospace Forces. The official admitted that the Ukrainians were able to advance a little bit, but noted that the region’s defense systems were working and that “at the moment, the situation is completely under control.” Stremousov concluded by urging people not to give into panic because of what they hear and read on social media. “This is not Kharkov, this is not [Krasny] Liman, we are holding the fence,” he proclaimed.


Russia’s Defense Ministry has also confirmed repelling the attack, stating that over 400 Ukrainian servicemen, 43 tanks and 89 units of special military equipment were eliminated in the Nikolayev-Krivoy Rog area. The announcement comes as Kiev’s forces have mounted large-scale offensives along several points of engagement with Russia. On Saturday, Russian troops were forced to withdraw from their defensive positions in the town of Krasny Liman in the Donetsk People’s Republic after they were nearly encircled by Ukrainian forces, which had brought in reserves and reached a “considerable superiority in men and material.” It has been noted, however, that the Ukrainian side has been suffering significant casualties in the offensive, having reportedly lost over 500 soldiers (200 dead, 320 injured), as well as ten tanks and 25 infantry fighting vehicles during the attack on Krasny Liman, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

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“It is not entirely clear, even to the Ukrainians, still less to the Russians, that Ukraine is a real country..”

British Intelligence Predicted Ukraine War 30 Years Ago (Dec.uk)

When British intelligence warned that Vladimir Putin was about to attack Ukraine earlier this year, the spooks’ foresight won many plaudits. Yet their prediction mirrored a scenario Whitehall had long known might unfold. In May 1992, just six months after the Soviet Union broke up, Britain’s then Prime Minister John Major was being briefed by his staff. They were concerned about a potential clash between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea. [..] Major’s foreign policy advisor and former ambassador to Moscow, Rodric Braithwaite, wrote a confidential background note that would today be considered heretical. “It is not entirely clear, even to the Ukrainians, still less to the Russians, that Ukraine is a real country,” Braithwaite noted. “Hence the tensions between the two.”

Braithwaite, who went on to chair the Joint Intelligence Committee later in 1992, gave the Prime Minister a potted history of the region, stretching back to the middle ages. He highlighted the “artificial famine which [Soviet leader Joseph] Stalin imposed on the Ukraine in 1930-31, when many millions of peasants were deported or starved to death.” “So it was not surprising then very many Ukrainians greeted the Germans as liberators in 1941, and that large numbers agreed to join the German army”, Braithwaite reasoned, referring to Nazi collaborators during World War II. Although these resistance groups were ultimately defeated by Stalin, Ukrainian nationalism survived as a political movement. “Throughout 1990 the number and size of popular demonstrations for independence swelled,” Braithwaite noted, adding that Russia looked like an “empire” to Ukrainians.

On the other hand, he said: “Russians would simply not recognise the picture. For Russians, the Ukraine is an integral part of Russia, its history and its culture. The Ukrainian language is no more than a dialect”. He went on: “I have not met a single Russian, even among the most sophisticated, who really believes that the Ukraine is now permanently severed from the motherland.” In a candid remark, Braithwaite said: “The Ukrainians know that. They also know that Ukraine itself is divided: between the ultra-nationalist…Western Ukraine…and the East which is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Russians.”

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“In the second half of 2022 we will be able to export up to 30 million tons. This is exactly the volume that we promised within the framework of our agreements with the UN to solve the problem of world hunger..”

Ukraine Grain Deal Not Enough – Moscow (RT)

The deal that unblocked Ukrainian grain exports is not enough to help poor nations put food on the table, Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said in an interview with RBK news, published on Monday. “As part of this deal, about 4.6 million tons of agro-industrial products were exported from Ukrainian ports. The main product, a little less than half, was corn, about 1.2 million tons was wheat. Of course, this cannot cover the needs of starving countries, including the need for grain. In fact, it is merely a variation in the global market,” the minister stated. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko recently said that, according to estimations, the global grain market is about 800 million tons.

Patrushev also noted that the main recipients of Ukrainian grain are European countries, which “are not countries that really need it.” The official explained that Russian agricultural products could make a difference, but there are still restrains, which need to be overcome. “There are still barriers that continue to hold back our exports. If we call things by their proper names – these are hidden sanctions on the transportation of [Russian] products… Primarily, it is the limited availability of ships. International logistics companies prefer not to work with our exporters,” the minister explained. He also noted, however, that the problems are being worked out with exporters, and Russian companies which have their own fleet have fewer problems in that area.

According to Patrushev, since the beginning of the agricultural year which stared on July 1, Russia has already delivered about 8.3 million tons of grain to foreign markets, “and the growth rate of exports is increasing every day.” “This season we see an opportunity to supply no less, and maybe even more than 50 million tons of grain to the world market. In the second half of 2022 we will be able to export up to 30 million tons. This is exactly the volume that we promised within the framework of our agreements with the UN to solve the problem of world hunger,” the minister said.

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When it rains.

Belgium Suffers Unplanned Nuclear Reactor Shutdown (RT)

One of Belgium’s six functioning nuclear reactors has shut down unexpectedly, the plant’s operator Engie told VRT News on Monday. The reactor, called Tihange 3, underwent an automatic shutdown at around 8:25am local time at which point “employees then brought the power plant into a safe condition,” the company said. The reasons for the stoppage are unclear but an investigation into the incident has been launched. According to local media, the unexpected shutdown of a reactor that provided 1,038 megawatts of electricity to Belgium would not jeopardize the country’s energy supply. Belgium shut down one of the reactors at its Doel plant “for good” just over a week ago, following through on long-held plans to dismantle its nuclear energy infrastructure even as the EU finds itself in an energy crisis.

Electrabel, which runs the Doel plant, explained that the company was merely fulfilling a 2003 agreement to enact a “gradual phase-out of nuclear energy for industrial electricity production.” Belgium’s reactors had previously supplied half of the country’s electricity needs. All were due to close by 2025 until the government signed a tentative agreement with Electrabel in March to potentially extend the life of the two newest reactors by ten years. This came amid concern about the country’s increasing dependence on fossil fuels, especially from Russia. The unexpectedly stricken Tihange 3 thus had its demise postponed until 2035, as did another reactor at the Doel plant. However, the deal is not binding and efforts to similarly extend the life of the neighboring Tihange 2 reactor past its planned shutdown date of February 1, 2023 were rebuffed in July.

The Belgian government has stressed that clinging to its once-scorned nuclear energy capacity in the EU’s time of need should not be seen as discarding its commitment to renewable energy. At the same time as it revealed the draft agreement to keep Tihange 3 and Doel 4 operational until 2035, it announced a €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) investment in wind, hydrogen, and solar energy “to give a boost to the transition to climate neutrality.” The investment will also pay for small modular nuclear reactors. As early as 2007, Belgian scientists were warning that closing the country’s nuclear plants would double the price of energy, harm the country’s energy independence, and increase its reliance on fossil fuels. Costs are already at or near record highs across the EU due to sanctions on Russian energy, a situation exacerbated by last week’s alleged sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline that had previously carried Russian gas to Europe.

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Bite the hand.

Ukraine Scolds EU Over Aid Delays (RT)

Delays in economic aid from the European Union to Ukraine are “unacceptable” and must be resolved to avert disaster, a senior Ukranian official warned, pointing to massive budget shortfalls as the EU approved another $4.9 billion (€5 billion) assistance package. Speaking to Politico on Monday, a top economic adviser to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Oleg Ustenko, slammed the European bloc after it agreed to send another tranche of aid between mid-October and the end of the year, insisting his country’s needs must be met sooner. “Our minister of finance is under extreme high pressure, when he sends these checks to the military, to pension funds … we have to have this money in his hands. So something like one week or several weeks’ delay is just not acceptable,” Ustenko told the outlet.

While the EU initially approved $8.8 billion (€9 billion) in assistance last May, only a small fraction of that has been sent so far. The latest move would break up a $4.9 billion (€5 billion) payment into three installments to be transferred before the end of 2022, though the rest of the original package likely won’t be sent until next year. Monday’s agreement followed months of debate between EU member states over the exact form the aid should take, with Germany arguing in favor of grants instead of loans. Berlin has accepted a plan to provide the latest $4.9 billion as a loan, but the body has yet to reach a consensus on the remaining funds. Ukraine has heavily relied on foreign aid since Russia’s attack commenced in February, with the country’s economic output taking a massive hit of up to 40% this year and the government facing a budget gap of some $5 billion per month.

While the United States has raced to inject cash into Ukraine, approving some $20 billion in economic and humanitarian assistance alone, the EU has been more hesitant, instead sending a little over $13 billion between all of its members, according to an aid tracking tool created by the Kiel Institute. American weapons transfers to Kiev have also dwarfed those of Europe by nearly ten-fold. Washington has reportedly noticed the disparity, with US officials recently telling Bloomberg that the Joe Biden administration “has pressed Europe to do more” to support Ukraine and take on “more burden sharing.” Talks on future aid from the EU will be held at an upcoming meeting in the German capital later this month, where Ustenko voiced hopes that member states will be convinced to speed up the process, saying “Berlin is going to be just the next step of these discussions.”

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UK is especially unstable. She has, what, two more weeks?

Truss Exposes The Inherent Instability Of Western Democracies (Hryce)

Even fervent believers in the stability of Western democracies must surely have had their faith shaken last week by the extraordinary economic and political crises created by the newly-minted UK prime minister, Liz Truss. In the week after the prime minister’s hand-picked chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, handed down a ‘mini-budget’ on September 23, the English pound crashed; the government bond market took a dive; interest and mortgage rates rose; some mortgage markets shut down; the Bank of England staged a highly unusual fiscal intervention to prevent the collapse of major pension funds; and the IMF criticized Truss in a manner usually reserved for the leaders of debt-ridden banana republics. The global importance of these events and the ongoing economic and political disruption that they will inevitably cause should not be underestimated.

Political commentator Alastair Campbell, formerly Tony Blair’s chief of staff, accurately described last week as “the week that everything changed.” Quite simply, the fact that the Truss mini-budget provided for billions of pounds worth of unfunded and uncosted tax cuts – including, most provocatively, a cut in the 45% top level income tax rate – caused the financial markets to register a serious vote of no confidence in the Truss government, with all the attendant consequences that followed. Incidentally, the events of last week show where real power ultimately lies in the West – and it is definitely not with politicians. Truss’s mini-budget is, of course, a product of the crude neo-liberal economic ideology that she so fanatically believes in, and which proved decisive in attracting the 80,000 or so Thatcher-worshipping members of the Tory party that anointed Truss prime minister only a few weeks ago.

Faced with an economic disaster entirely of her own making – one of her first acts as prime minister was to sack the head of the Treasury – Truss simply doubled down, and retreated petulantly to her Downing Street bunker. She did emerge briefly late last week to do a round of disastrous radio interviews with regional BBC stations – in which Truss continued to robotically tout the benefits of ‘trickle-down economics’, and (unsuccessfully) tried to blame the economic crisis entirely on Russian President Vladimir Putin and the conflict in Ukraine. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of commentators in the UK – irrespective of their political affiliations – have been strongly critical of the Truss mini-budget and the prime minister herself. Even Daily Telegraph columnist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard accused Truss of having “embarked on a course of sheer madness.”

Read more …

The Nic Sandmann case may have opened some venues.

Trump Seeks $475 Million In Defamation Suit Against CNN (ZH)

Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against CNN tonight, claiming the so-called news outlet defamed him in an effort to reduce his chances of running for president again in 2024. The suit, which was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, alleges Trump has been a “long-time critic” of CNN, “not because CNN does a bad job of reporting the news, but because CNN seeks to create the news.” “CNN’s campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander against the Plaintiff has only escalated in recent months as CNN fears the Plaintiff will run for president in 2024,” the suit reads. “As a part of its concerted effort to tilt the political balance to the Left, CNN has tried to taint the Plaintiff with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler.’”

Trump seeks $475 million in punitive damages, alleging that CNN “has sought to use its massive influence – purportedly as a ‘trusted’ news source – to defame the Plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically, culminating in CNN claiming credit for ‘[getting] Trump out’ in the 2020 presidential election.” The former president notified the outlet in July of his intention to sue for “repeated defamatory statements.” Trump also warned he would sue other outlets he alleges have “defamed and defrauded the public” about the 2020 presidential election results.

As a reminder, Trump had a lawsuit against 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and former top FBI officials tossed in early September by U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who said Trump was “seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him, and this Court is not the appropriate forum.” That is “a high legal bar to clear given First Amendment protections granted to the free press under the Constitution,” according to The Hill. “The New York Times, for example, has not lost a defamation case in more than 50 years.” However, as JustTheNews reports, winning such a case is not impossible, however. Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann successfully secured considerable financial settlements from both CNN and the Washington Post for their coverage of a controversy that suggested the high schooler instigated a confrontation with an Indian activist.

Read more …

“51 former intelligence officials signed a letter..”

Hunter Biden Probe to Look Into ‘What Happened in 2020’: Jim Jordan (ET)

If the GOP takes a majority in the House, one of the “key elements” of its investigatory plans into Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, next year will involve looking into “what happened in 2020,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, the New York Post ran a story about Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings in Ukraine and China, which was promptly dismissed as dubious by mainstream media outlets and suppressed on social media platforms. At the time, 51 former intelligence officials signed a letter claiming that the New York Post’s story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” In an interview with Breitbart, Jordan said that he wants to know on what intelligence the 51 former officials based their letter.

“We had 51 former intelligence officials tell us that this was Russian disinformation. We had the FBI sit down with Facebook and say, ‘Hey, be careful, wink wink. We think there’s Russian disinformation.’ … All that was done to suppress that story, which had an impact on how people voted in the most important election we have, the election for president of the United States,” Jordan told Breitbart. “Did someone from The New York Times tell them something? Did someone from the FBI leak some false—was it this Timothy Thibault, who [has] since left the FBI, who suppressed that information at the FBI? I want to know. That’s pretty important stuff, so I really want to look into that angle.”

Most of the investigative activities related to Hunter Biden would be headquartered at the Oversight Committee, with Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) expected to lead it. Jordan will continue to remain a member and chair of the Judiciary. Comer plans to look into Hunter Biden’s suspicious banking and business transactions, he added.

Read more …

They cannot have a real weight in a reserve currency basket. Not when Xi can devalue by 50% tomorrow morning just because he’s constipated. Nobody wants the yuan, including the Chinese.

The Biggest Problem China Faces Isn’t Real Estate (Balding)

After it joined the World Trade Organization in 2000 and anchored the Chinese yuan (a.k.a. renminbi) to the U.S. dollar, China linked its economy to the United States. Enforcing a fixed exchange rate regime with strict capital controls, China benefited from large inflows and relatively low-interest rates due largely to the low-interest rate environment in the United States. What happens to the Chinese economy when interest rates increase in the United States? Sovereign currency policy faces the intractable dilemma of what economists call the “impossible trinity.” Countries can have a fixed exchange rate, free capital flow, or sovereign monetary policy but must choose only two of three. Economics textbooks give clean and clear definitions of each. Still, in reality, China tried to manipulate each and come out worse due to its attempts to manipulate the laws of economics.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) technocrats attempted to create a system where they could enjoy the best of the three options and leave behind the worst parts. China implemented a quasi-fixed exchange rate, which is effectively a U.S. dollar index, with tightly controlled capital flows, and a semi-sovereign monetary policy. What almost no one noticed with the convoluted creation of Chinese currency policy attempting to adhere to the ‘impossible trinity’ was that for the last 20 years, China benefited from business cycle synchronization with the United States. Because the yuan was tied directly to the U.S. dollar and the United States kept interest rates low, China could keep its interest rates low. Now that the Federal Reserve (Fed) is raising interest rates, what impact will this have on China?

First, the days of easy money flows to China are over. For large parts of the last 20 years, Chinese interest rates were 3-5 percent higher than the United States. With either a fixed or semi-fixed exchange rate, this gave investors in China access to easy higher returns. With portfolio returns and foreign direct investment based upon interest rate differentials between the United States and China, this drew investor capital with fixed or heavily managed exchange rates creating easy returns. Investors have soured on China as an investment destination for a range of reasons. But when baseline returns are higher in U.S. government debt without any of the China issues, the financial motivation will dry up the biggest reason to send money.

Second, this will place enormous upward pressure on Chinese interest rates right as China’s economy is teetering. For most of the period since 2000, the Chinese and U.S. economies have been highly correlated. This allowed Chinese interest rates to follow the United States and enjoy a sustained period of low-cost money. However, now as the Fed is seeking to tamp down inflation and overheated demand, China is suffering through its weakest economy in probably post-opening up history.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Home Forums Debt Rattle October 4 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 69 total)
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  • #117658

    Pablo Picasso Cafe Royan [The Coffee] 1940   • Developing Developments (Kunstler) • The Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Sabotage (Monkeywerx) • Macgregor:
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle October 4 2022]

    #117659
    Germ
    Participant

    Suggesting that the US was responsible for the bombing of NS1 and NS2 is now the second time that Sachs has spoken out against “the narrative”; the first being when he was the chair of The Lancet ‘s COVID-19 Commission when he suggested that the virus may have originated from an American laboratory.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs#COVID-19

    The scales seem to have finally fallen from his eyes.

    He probably has a family member who is death-vaxx injured.
    That would be a wake up call for most.

    #117661
    aspnaz
    Participant

    After un-docking from the Bart-12 refueler, the P8 followed a route west along the Nord Stream pipelines, descended to bomb-run altitude, and dropped its weapons.

    This suggests that Washington is still in control of the military, which means that Russia should be looking to blow the ass off Washington …. to borrow an epithet from Kunstler.

    #117662
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Working on this, as said before: so, this is America’s master plan to dominate Germany and the EU, and they DIDN’T build any LNG? Not back when, not lately, not now? C’mon. We also don’t have it. I mean, some but not enough for TWO major continents.

    Next, so the U.S. shuts off gas forever, collapses Germany forever and…? And Europe collapses, Europe’s banks collapse, and Europe…can’t pay for the LNG you don’t have to sell them.

    …Which banking collapse collapses the American Banking system.

    Master plan!

    And this causes what? Yes, “You’ll own nothing.” “Eat ze bugs!” Not JUST in Europe, but falls on America like a ton of bricks too. So who wants and approves of that plan? And puts in a worldwide eco panopticon into place in Ann Arbor just to “Keep Control”?

    There’s one loose affiliate faction where that tics all the boxes and it’s not the Pentagon. It’s not IBM.

    “Our” plan, (whoever “We” is,) was obviously, clearly, and eternally to use RUSSIA’s gas, by conquering them and selling it back to Europe. There are no other pipelines, there are no other alternatives. However, Europe couldn’t conquer Russia and got off the leash. They couldn’t get the U.S. to fully engage them when they still could, like back in the 90’s when Cheney wanted to nuke them. They tried to pre-prep with alt-energy, then by load-shedding their own people. Both were idiotic crayon-munching fantasies. They (London/Davos) rigged both the 2016 and 2020 elections (Steele + $/Social media/internet voting). They now demand the U.S. fight all Russia on their behalf, and the Pentagon won’t, even with Biden and Blinken telling them to. Then they ran out of time.

    Sound more accurate?

    https://law.justia.com › cases › federal › appellate-courts › ca6 › 18-3373 › 18-3373-2019-07-29.html
    Novak v. City of Parma, No. 18-3373 (6th Cir. 2019) :: Justia
    Summary Novak created “The City of Parma Police Department” Facebook account to exercise his “fundamental American right” of ” [m]ocking our government officials.” He published posts “advertising” free abortions in a police van and a “Pedophile Reform event.”

    The police obtained warrants to search Novak’s apartment and to arrest him, stating that Novak unlawfully impaired the department’s functions. Novak responded that, other than 12 minutes of phone calls, the police department suffered no disruption. Novak was acquitted, then sued, alleging violations of his constitutional and statutory rights.”

    “Tucker: “Despite what you may hear on NBC News, Zelenskyy is not the leader of a democratic nation.”

    Must Defend Democracy! They’re trying to end our Democracy! Maga peace is the enemy of Democracy. Kill them! (Gosh if I end up in a court case that sarcasm really isn’t going to go well, is it? Especially with two new Biden-promoted murders this week.)

    Kent Brewery. Government said it. Media reported it. Therefore it’s false.

    LNG. Hey, I’m not a genius but wouldn’t it be cheaper and more ecological to use the SouthStream pipeline?

    Kunstler: like everyone he’s sloppy and looking at only the surface level. Of course we all do this, and have to, saying “The West” did this, “The West” wants this. Really? WHO in the West? WHO in America? WHO in the military or Executive in America? WHO in Europe? For that matter, WHO in Russia?

    Although not all that different, it’s never mattered this much before as there used to be actual nations, actually running things. Now it’s corporations and factions running THEM.

    Monkeywerx: they hit the pipeline in four areas along two flight paths. Did it follow both? Why those areas? Are they more shallow? It would also have blown in quite a long sequence: maybe minutes to an hour apart. Did they? We have the seismographs. If not, somebody set up JimmyBob as the fall guy. That doesn’t mean “The U.S.” didn’t do it: most probably we were involved, but these things matter.

    Hypothesis: What you do is, when you set the actual hit – maybe set months ago – you then call your faction-pals like Nuland over there and make up some cock-n-bull story how you’d really appreciate it if you “Showed Russia they’re vulnerable” on the NS2 by doing a specific military overflight that’s going to be pointedly attack-formation. Then fly home, call Moscow on the phone, and ask them to talk. Instead, after the overflight, you find out someone popped them and blamed you. Clearly they are not that mad, or they’d pipe up.

    Conclusions: 1) Do you really think the U.S. is so stupid as to leave the flight recorder on a flight during what is wartime AND ALSO deny they had anything to do with it?

    2) They WANT and don’t care that everyone knows they did it. …But also want to deny it to CNN for lols.

    Not that it can’t be true, but it’s an interesting mind-bend to think this is the “direct and simple” answer.

    Nord Stream 2, Trump declared in July 2018, is a “tragedy.“

    Someone pointed out that Biden and Nuland promising to blow it up, are only the most RECENT. Everyone has said they’d blow it up since construction began. Good point.

    “But because this contradicted the Russiagate narrative that he was really a Kremlin asset, Trump’s sanctions against Nord Stream 2 were widely ignored at home.”

    That’s because it’s real. The Media and Congress ignore all real things and report or impeach only for unreal things. Professional courtesy. Conclusion: Trump blew up the Pipeline! Because he’s a Russian asset! j/k Actually less crazy than some things they seriously and un-ironically reported though.

    “co-host Lisa Abramowicz tried to change the subject to inflation in Europe.”

    Must. Stop. News. Hate, enemy. Is the truth.

    “Blinken last Friday in a press conference; he says ‘this is also a tremendous opportunity.’”

    Blinken’s so mad about 20% of the population of a major NATO ally being killed, he said it was great and “tremendous”. Go USA!

    Okay then, who is Sachs? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs

    UN, Columbia, Harvard, Shock Doctrine, Sustainable development, all the usual checklist.

    “Canadian journalist Naomi Klein, Jeffrey Sachs is one of the architects of “disaster capitalism” after his recommendations in Bolivia, Poland and Russia led to millions of people ending up in the streets.”

    “Sachs endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic Party”

    “In April 2018, he supported President Donald Trump’s view that the United States should come out of Syria “very soon”, adding: “It’s long past time for the United States to end its destructive military engagement in Syria and across the Middle East, though the security state seems unlikely to let this happen”

    “Sachs was the chair of The Lancet ‘s COVID-19 Commission…[which] suggested that the virus may have originated from an American laboratory,”

    Next question: why would I ever in my life care what this monkey says? Sounds like some dumb guy who knows about as much as Nascar Jimmy. Let’s take it as “The Elites” are not one unified monolith, but a loose alliance of aligning interests.

    “Kiev has since admitted to using [Starlink] for the war effort.”

    Ya think?

    The poll was quickly swamped by what he called the “biggest bot attack I’ve ever seen.”

    But these bots don’t show up and aren’t used anywhere else, like Twitter, Facebook, or against YOU. Right? And adding: doesn’t matter how many favors you do, how generous or compliant you are; the minute you cross the radicals, they turn on you like religious zealots. Shouldn’t they cut Elon some slack for — I dunno — setting up an nationwide military communication system for them? NOPE. They are incapable of negotiation or reason. And You’re Next.

    Kiev’s Counter Attacks on Kherson Have Failed – Official (RT)”

    I guess we’ll all find out if we eat dirt on this. It can’t be hidden very long. P.S. 10:1 tank ratio? Is that normal?

    “British Intelligence Predicted Ukraine War 30 Years Ago (Dec.uk)”

    Yes, because they planned it with Brzezinski 30 years ago. Duh. Read a book.

    “This is exactly the volume that we promised within the framework of our agreements with the UN to solve the problem of world hunger,”

    Meanwhile, the UN and Europe are working tirelessly to REDUCE food exports from Holland and CAUSE world hunger in the Global South.

    “Delays in economic aid from the European Union to Ukraine are “unacceptable” and must be resolved to avert disaster,”

    The EU is broke and giving that aid will create disaster too. Comments that nobody, not even the U.S. and Europe can just give away $12B/month and not collapse. That’s supposed to be short term and needs to pay for itself. It’s not. How have they “avoided collapse” so long? Noting that the Dow is -11,000pt and the Pound has plummeted to under $1, lowest ever.

    “Truss Exposes the Inherent Instability of Western Democracies (Hryce) “

    Democracies are “unstable”? Howso? Aren’t they “Flexible” instead? And if they are unstable, we should replace them with what, exactly, Mr. Hryce? Socialism that worked so well everywhere it was tried? With you, personally, a PMC Technocrat, because you were so successful with ecology, climate change, and Covid?

    Like the U.S., all the good men scattered because the UK needs to collapse under the carefully hand-picked patsy: MissTruss, and especially her moronic finance minister. This will damage support for “minorities” and women for years. So, especially good planning! The “Madness” came in all the 40 years before, Ambrose. Certainly every minute of every day since Blair.

    Trump Seeks $475 Million in Defamation Suit against CNN (ZH)”

    Well he certainly deserves it. There has never been such a slander and libel campaign in the history of the world outside of war. Half a billion dollars? He can buy back the company with that, which makes sense. Too far? They reported THOUSANDS, probably tens of thousands of specific, factual allegations for 7 years, all of which turned out to be false. So far. Suing for libel is a critical part of our system. That they can use lawfare to say all things with impunity has to be reined in. Along with Sec230 which is coming up.

    “We had 51 former intelligence officials tell us that this was Russian disinformation.”

    And they know that because they never looked. There was no investigation. Whenever we see something important, national security, we always prevent any further investigation to find out if it’s true. That’s just common sense! CovidCovidCovid. We know it’s false because we will never, ever look!

    “Nobody wants the yuan, including the Chinese.”

    They would just end up in Triffin’s paradox. Why put their head in the noose? And they’ve been predicting China’s collapse since…dunno, 2002? Xi says their economy is “Like the ocean” which is true, and even real estate is hard to collapse it when they can fall back on manufacturing or some other sector.

    “China tried to manipulate each and come out worse due to its attempts to manipulate the laws of economics.”

    Really? They’re still there after you predicted they would be vanquished as our enemy, and Wall St. would feed on their carcass like Sachs and Browder. Instead they can float endless carriers and take Taiwan. China is not the West. We are having a very hard time understanding them. And as Russia uses “General Winter”, China uses “General Time.”

    Note the story that China is ALREADY colonizing the U.S. – just going about it as if it’s a historical inevitability. Manifest Destiny. Buying land, yes. Buying politicians, yes. Bought all the paper, every social media, yes. To make “special economic zones” where Americans pay taxes but China doesn’t, yes. Importing Chinese to be the workers in those zones, yes.

    And now: “Defund the Police” while China sets up parallel police departments that actually work. So if you want a crime solved? Go to Bronx PD? Suck it: we don’t have the resources. Go to the Chinese PD? “How can we help you, sir?”

    THAT’S colonization.

    #117663
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Oh wait: you have to be “White” (whatever that means) to do colonization. No other people have ever expanded on their neighbors or asked for tribute before. Nope! All good here. They’re not white, therefore they are our special golden retriever puppy friends. Only looking out for our best interests.

    That is not racist at all.

    #117664
    Germ
    Participant

    @ Dr D – yup, Sachs is a monkey. But a smooth talking one.

    Enjoy this funny exchange, where Sachs is schooled by Hugh Hendry – somebody who understands the real world. Clearly, Sachs is not used to being spoken down to.
    What a hoot!

    #117665
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Not surprisingly, the vast majority of commentators in the UK – irrespective of their political affiliations – have been strongly critical of the Truss mini-budget and the prime minister herself.

    She is being used to boost Keir Starmer. He is a total fascist and noted as Jimmy Saville’s protector when he led the CPS. Truss was never mean’t to succeed and I am sure she was assured by her owners that getting rid of the 45% rate was a done deal. She now must be astute enough to realise she is likely to be one of Britain’s shortest-lived PMs. Starmer is a much more worrying prospect: rather than destroy the UK, he has the evil needed to turn it into a prison camp.

    #117666
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against CNN tonight, claiming the so-called news outlet defamed him in an effort to reduce his chances of running for president again in 2024.

    CNN responded by saying that Trump was seeking attention: if anybody should know, the people on the screen should be able to recognise one of their own. Of course, this just digs the Trump camp further into the fight, securing yet more votes for Trump. Trump seeking attention from CNN? Watch some of Trump’s rallys, they are rammed full of people, I don’t think he needs any attention from the CNN camp.

    #117667
    aspnaz
    Participant

    The atlas moth has wings that mimick two cobras watching her back.

    Creatures like this make me think again about intelligent design. The presence of cobra images surely does not increase the safety of a moth, so what is happening here? Very strange, very impressive. We are part of a system we cannot ever understand.

    #117668
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Dr D said

    “Our” plan, (whoever “We” is,) was obviously, clearly, and eternally to use RUSSIA’s gas, by conquering them and selling it back to Europe. There are no other pipelines, there are no other alternatives. However, Europe couldn’t conquer Russia and got off the leash.

    I like the way you think, that is starting to make sense: the lack of preparation based on the assumption they could crush Russia. The shock that they could not crush Russia so the alternative is … makes sense.

    #117669
    John Day
    Participant

    Aspnaz v. AFKTT on Hobgoblin thread last night:

    AFKTT said
    “Never forget that the system is run by banks and corporations for the short-term benefit of banks and corporations. Therefore, actual solutions that would quickly bring down banks and corporations are ‘unacceptable’.”

    Aspnaz: “There is no solution because there is no crisis, this is an entirely man made hoax designed to strip the majority of us of our standard of living. If the only “solutions” to this hoax that can be proposed by the looney left is to get rid of banks then the proposers are immensely stupid as their solution is a revolution.”

    #117670
    Dora
    Participant

    Edward Dowd

    “The release valve for global debt collapse is currencies. Since 2009 there has been unprecedented coordination between central banks to keep this lie afloat. We have reached the event horizon…the currency wars have begun. ”

    https://gettr.com/post/p1t0ofz7cdc

    #117671
    Redneck
    Participant

    The Ruskys are just as delusional as the West , I am just…..words fail….
    The vax bit , starts at 4.00.

    #117672
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    Well, on Friday of last week, my young adult next-door neighbor in my apartment building apparently had a seizure that led to his death the following day at the hospital. Since I didn’t really know the guy, I do not know if he was fully vaxxed, but I do know that as of about six months ago, about 75% of adults in Wisconsin qualified as fully vaxxed. And I also know that prior to this year, I have never known of somebody in the apartment building I was living in suddenly having a fatal seizure. (Though in fairness, I should mention that a next-door neighbor of mine who smoked and drank the way most older working-class men do, died of cancer in his apartment a few years after I moved out of that building. This happened a few years prior to Covid.)

    I also know of a high-school classmate of mine who died of a mysterious illness earlier this year from Facebook, and I know he was fully vaxxed because he was on Facebook making fun of people who didn’t want to get vaxxed because they were dubious about this medical treatment. I take no delight at all, by the way, in knowing of this. This man trusted the institutions of science and medicine, as prior to 2020, that was what reasonable, responsible people supposedly did, and it might have ended his life. I find that utterly sad-making and terrible. 🙁

    #117673
    Germ
    Participant

    I was accused of killing people, because I refused to get death-vaxxed.
    I was shunned by family, because I refused to get death vaxxed.
    I was mocked by friends, because I refused to get death-vaxxed.
    I am still excluded from the US (where I have friends/family), because I refused to get death-vaxxed.

    I now have numerous friends and family who are either sick directly from the death-vaxx or who are getting Covid/colds repeatedly.

    I laugh right at them – “Told ‘ya!”
    It’s like therapy for me.

    #117674
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks Germ, for the Jeffrey Sachs Wikipedia page. It appears that he was a tenured Harvard professor at 28, obviously talented, wanted to help people, but came at it top-down and neoliberal, so got the fractured results we would expect.
    That being said, he appears to have always had this class-battle within himself, between his patrician-standing and his desire to help poor-masses.
    He is serving a few masters, who are at odds with each other. Difficult and frustrating position for him.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs#COVID-19

    #117675
    Germ
    Participant
    #117676
    John Day
    Participant

    @Mr.Roboto: The young adult who seized and died almost certainly hemorrhaged into his brain.

    #117677
    riesterm
    Participant

    Dr. D: What’s this about Ann Arbor ?

    You wrote: “So who wants and approves of that plan? And puts in a worldwide eco panopticon into place in Ann Arbor just to “Keep Control”?

    #117678
    Germ
    Participant

    Drug Development Expert Sounds Alarm Over Rushed-to-Market COVID-19 Vaccines

    “Hedley Rees is a drug development expert and author. Rees is the Managing Consultant at PharmaFlowLimited, a UK-based consultancy specializing in supply chain management within the pharmaceutical and life science sectors. Clients range from large pharmaceutical companies to emerging biotech, and also include investors, lawyers, other consultancies, facility design and build specialists, and third-party logistics providers. Assignments span preclinical, clinical, and commercial supply chains up to complex multi-product networks covering global territories.”

    https://rumble.com/v14gou4-drug-development-expert-sounds-alarm-over-rushed-to-market-covid-19-vaccine.html

    Terrifying – if you’re death-vaxxed.
    Popcorn time – if you’re not!

    #117679
    Redneck
    Participant

    Pity the poor Russian draftees , if the Ukys don’t kill them the AZ probably will.
    At the end of September, several Russian regions, citing a June 2021 decree issued by the Ministry of Defense, announced they would begin vaccinating mobilized residents.

    In response, Independent Association of Physicians published two open letters—one addressed to Vladimir Putin, the other appealing to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

    Some excerpts from the letter to Putin:

    OPEN DEMAND from doctors to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

    Vladimir Vladimirovich, we are doctors, members of the International Public Organization “Independent Association of Doctors”, appeal to you with a demand to ban vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 for those mobilized and called up for military service.

    #117680
    Redneck
    Participant

    From the Russian Military review.
    “Today, the Ministry of Defense is really sowing panic and defeatist sentiment precisely by the fact that it is not able to tell the people of Russia the TRUTH. […]

    Why does our Ministry of Defense cowardly hide its head in the sand today as soon as problems begin? … Will real success come from verbal victories?

    Already today, many in Russia have the same question: if the Armed Forces of Ukraine are left without equipment, if the soldiers do not want to fight and scatter, then who, excuse me, captures the cities? Are necromancers raising the dead? […]

    The situation is ominous … The Ministry of Defense can remain silent as long as it wants or draw beautiful reports, destroying the equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the fourth time. Will this change the situation at the front? Also no. It is high time for the authorities to think about what they are doing, and how long will the Russian people allow themselves to be mocked like that. Trust is lost very quickly, as practice shows. Experiments of this kind can end very sadly, and it is a pity that the Ministry of Defense is playing with fire, pretending not to understand the problem. […]

    And, finally, the same question that was mentioned at the very beginning: do you really think that we have no right to the truth?

    September 14: “A costly lesson”

    When the dust settled:

    At the moment, the Russian army has practically withdrawn all its forces from the Kharkov region. That is, this means that Ukrainian forces ended up on the Russian border.

    Once again, the Ministry of Defense called this a cosmetic retreat. […]

    All this is very similar to the spring gesture of goodwill with the withdrawal of troops from the north of Ukraine.

    The Kharkov operational crisis in early September is, of course, a lesson for the allied forces. Underestimating the enemy was very costly. Even taking into account the fact that it was possible to withdraw the troops relatively quickly. In the newly occupied territories, many people remained who believed that Russia was here forever. These are dark times now.”

    #117681
    teri
    Participant

    @ Mister Roboto:

    “I also know of a high-school classmate of mine who died of a mysterious illness earlier this year from Facebook…”

    I don’t know anyone that actually died from Facebook, but I sure know a lot who have suffered brain damage from that source.

    #117682
    teri
    Participant

    What could go wrong here?:

    “The National Institutes of Health is providing more viral research funding, including related to bat coronaviruses, to U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance, linked to an infamous Wuhan lab. […]”

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/nih-gives-more-bat-coronavirus-funding-wuhan-lab-ecohealth

    #117683
    Redneck
    Participant

    In Retrospect and why I am now cynical about Russian huggers.
    “Insane in the Ukraine
    How does this end?

    Edward Slavsquat
    Sep 11

    Comment
    Share

    Internet war punditry: rapidly advancing towards total irrelevancy.
    The Ukrainian military has launched a counter-offensive in the Kharkov region.

    There are many hot takes about this.

    We are not going to provide you with a Military Analysis. Instead, we will offer a brief overview of how we arrived at the current state of affairs—and ask the simplest of questions: Can we please stop with the malarkey and have an honest dialogue about what has occurred over the past six months? Please? It’s time.

    The Kiev “feint”

    Remember when thousands of Russian troops semi-surrounded Kiev and Zelensky was supposed to flee for his life (maybe he did, temporarily, to Poland. History’s Mysteries)? Oh, we remember.
    (There is a image in the original article here showing posts from Escobar , he used the phrases below.”

    “Going for the jugular” and “doing it the hard rock way” suddenly became a sneaky “feint”? Okay, sure.
    Go back to mid-March—all the usual suspects were still predicting an imminent assault on Kiev. There’s a simple explanation for this: Russia was still signaling it had ambitious plans for Kiev and neighboring regions.

    Twitter avatar for @colonelhomsi
    Geo_monitor
    @colonelhomsi
    In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry listed the areas of Ukraine where, according to their data, the population represents “good relations” with Russia – these are:
    Image
    March 18th 2022

    68 Retweets213 Likes
    But by late March the narrative had changed in a very radical way.

    On March 25, Russia’s ministry of defense claimed that operations in Kiev, Kharkov, Chernigov, Sumy, and Nikolaev were designed to “tie down [Ukrainian] forces” and prevent them from “strengthening their grouping in the Donbass.”

    March 13, 2022 (source: URA.ru)
    A few days later, the Kremlin described the Russian withdrawal from these areas as a gesture of goodwill aimed at encouraging peace talks.

    Seemingly overnight, Russia’s short-lived excursions into Kiev and the surrounding regions were rebranded as a “feint” that would allow for the swift liberation of Donetsk and Lugansk. (Current status: incomplete.)

    A new narrative was born: with Phase I (“the feint”) a resounding success, the Russian military could now focus its attention on the Donbass. We were told, day after day, that Ukrainian forces in the east were going to be boiled alive, Ramen noodle-style, in a giant cauldron. Once the Ukrainians were encircled, Kiev would be forced to either surrender or crawl to the negotiating table.

    Twitter avatar for @GonzaloLira1968
    Gonzalo Lira
    @GonzaloLira1968
    In the encirclement pictured on this map, there are some 60,000 Ukrainian combat troops—their finest men. They have no chance of being relieved, reinforced or resupplied. They have no chance to win. If they keep fighting, they will die—for nothing.

    This is an utter tragedy.
    Terror Alarm @Terror_Alarm
    🚨🇺🇦🗺Battle of #Donbas starts.
    Russian Red Zombie army is trying to pinch off a Ukrainian salient with two major strikes from the north and the south now. https://t.co/OYrFGgWXkT
    April 22nd 2022

    960 Retweets2,993 Likes
    It was all over, according to the liveliest intellects of our time. Gonzalo Lira proclaimed that Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin met with Zelensky in late April to inform Kiev that the United States would not be sending heavy weapons to Ukraine.

    “It was a kiss-off. It was the signal to the Zelensky regime that US/NATO will not supply heavy weapons or planes, and will not get into this war. It’s over,” Lira tweeted on April 27.

    Scott Ritter had a slightly different take: Russia would destroy any NATO weaponry sent to Ukraine before it could reach the front lines.

    The evolution of the Donbass “cauldron”
    It wasn’t until mid-May that Ritter conceded “Russia has shown itself unable or unwilling to [intercept weapons shipments]—as a result—the Ukrainians are having a meaningful impact on the battlefield.”

    Mariupol was officially cleared of Azov fighters at the end of May (some of whom were later released as part of a prisoner exchange), but the long-anticipated encirclement of Ukrainian forces in Donbass never materialized. Reinforcements and NATO-supplied weapons continued to flow across the Dnieper.

    No biggie.

    In a tweet commemorating the first three months of fighting, Lira mused that the AFU wouldn’t be able to hold out for another 90 days. The Ukrainian military, according to Lira, was now a spent force entirely reliant on reservists.

    Twitter avatar for @GonzaloLira1968
    Gonzalo Lira
    @GonzaloLira1968
    Today is Day 90 of the conflict.

    ►Russian forces have captured +100,000 square kilometers, are destroying the AFU in the Donbas.

    ►The AFU has little-to-no airforce, tanks, APC’s. They’re down to reservists.

    Does anyone really think Ukraine can stand another 90 days of this?
    May 25th 2022

    396 Retweets1,657 Likes
    But after taking Mariupol, Russia’s advances slowed to a snail’s pace. Gains in East Ukraine came to a screeching halt after the UAF was expelled from Lugansk in early July.

    “The special operation is going according to plan”

    Suddenly, a new narrative was born: the longer the war went on, the better it was for Russia. Time was on Russia’s side—even as Ukraine was “rebuilding significant capability” (source: Scott Ritter).

    But this wasn’t always the prevailing wisdom. For educational purposes, let’s briefly review what Very Serious Pundits were saying in the first weeks of the conflict.

    On March 9, the Saker published an article under the headline: “The opinion of a professional about the special operation in Ukraine (MUST READ!)”. The analysis, written by a “military professional” named Alexander Dubrovsky, repeatedly stressed that speed was of critical importance to achieve Russia’s goals in Ukraine.

    “The special operation does not stop, there will be no more delays. Every day of delay categorically harms us, unplanned diplomatic, political, economic and military problems appear. Only speed and onslaught, until in the West they begin to assess the situation with a cool head,” Dubrovsky wrote.

    The article continued: “The final turning point will come after the cleansing of Kharkov, blocking or taking Odessa.”

    A new directive had been issued by the Russian MOD, Dubrovsky revealed: the gloves were coming off and “hypothetical harm to civilians” would no longer take precedent over military objectives:

    I want to reassure you, for the twelfth day our guys are operating in a different operational and tactical reality, losses will rapidly decrease. If earlier there was a strict order not to cause even hypothetical harm to civilians, civilian objects… today it has been modified. In one sentence: “not to the detriment of the personnel of the units.” As a military man, I am completely satisfied: now the humanitarian sensitivities are over – real work will go on.

    This was the “must-read” that received a glowing preface from Andrei, the Saker’s chief curator.

    Fast-forward five months. On August 10, the Saker penned a commentary explaining why he was no longer posting maps of the military situation in Ukraine.

    “Unlike the first month or two of the SMO, there are very few changes worth showing on a map,” Andrei wrote, adding that the barely moving battle lines showed Russia was taking special care to avoid civilian casualties.

    Okay, great—but what happened to the speedy “cleansing” (yikes) of Kharkov and Odessa? And how is it that “every day of delay” was bad news for Russia in March, but suddenly a non-issue in August?”
    https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/insane-in-the-ukraine?utm_source=email&publication_id=520963&post_id=72671489

    Edward Slavsquat

    #117684
    Redneck
    Participant
    #117686
    zerosum
    Participant

    TAE is showing you how to find the truth ….
    Home work assignment…. Help.

    ———–
    • Developing Developments (Kunstler)
    ://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/developing-developments/

    What no government official can acknowledge — even among the Euroland victim nations of this awesome stupidity — is that the US demolition of the Nord Streams was an act-of-war against our own allies.
    By the way, the blogger who styles himself as “Monkey Werx,” notable for tracking the world-wide military flight movements, presents a comprehensive play-by-play of just exactly how the mission was accomplished. I’ll summarize but you can read his full report (click here) for yourself.
    ———-
    • The Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Sabotage (Monkeywerx)
    ://www.monkeywerxus.com/blog/the-nord-stream-2-pipeline-sabotage
    The Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Sabotage

    Okay, let’s dig into what we know about the subject. First and foremost, everything I have shown and discovered is open source – meaning it is available to anyone around the world. I just happen to know where to look and have the tools that give me the opportunity to find the data.

    That said, the Russians also have this data and it certainly didn’t help our case that Biden told them we would take the pipeline out should the Russians invade Ukraine.
    Here are a few facts about the sabotage:
    Your move …. read more ….

    ://www.aviarlabs.com/skyglass-app

    SkyGlass by AVIAR Labs

    ———-
    So it’s not something that you could simply drop a grenade down at the end of a fish line and disrupt. ”

    • Macgregor: US Likely Attacked Nord Stream Pipelines to Isolate Germany (SN)

    ://summit.news/2022/10/03/former-pentagon-advisor-says-us-likely-attacked-nord-stream-pipelines-to-isolate-germany/
    Former Pentagon Advisor Says US Likely Attacked Nord Stream Pipelines to Isolate Germany
    “You have to look at who are the state actors that have the capability to do this.”
    Published 16 hours ago on 3 October, 2022 Paul Joseph Watson
    ———-
    • In Nord Stream Attack, US Sees ‘A Tremendous Opportunity’ (Maté)

    ://mate.substack.com/p/in-nord-stream-attack-us-sees-a-tremendous
    In Nord Stream attack, US sees ‘a tremendous opportunity’
    Without the now-exploded Nord Stream gas pipelines, Europeans fear “a winter of de-industrialization.” As US planners have long sought, the White House sees a “tremendous strategic opportunity.”

    Aaron Maté
    18 hr ago
    ——–

    • Jeffrey Sachs Offers Nord Stream Theory (RT)

    ://www.azerbaycan24.com/en/us-professor-offers-nord-stream-theory/

    Bloomberg hosts scrambled to stop Jeffrey Sachs as he laid blame for the pipeline explosion
    ———-

    #117687
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks for further context, Redneck.
    It’s war. “Plans don’t survive the first engagement with the enemy”, etc.
    I have preferences, based on my model of “reality”, but they mostly just matter to me, and I have to keep adjusting them, anyway.

    #117688
    John Day
    Participant

    It worked so well for Nixon, after all…
    The UN Demands All Central Banks Stop Rate Hikes And Switch To Price Controls Instead
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/un-demands-all-central-banks-stop-rate-hikes-and-switch-price-controls-instead

    #117689
    zerosum
    Participant

    Don’t tell.
    TAE found More energy problems

    • Belgium Suffers Unplanned Nuclear Reactor Shutdown (RT)
    ——–
    How to say we are broke/collapsed/bankrupt

    • Ukraine Scolds EU Over Aid Delays (RT)

    “Our minister of finance is under extreme high pressure, when he sends these checks to the military, to pension funds … we have to have this money in his hands. So something like one week or several weeks’ delay is just not acceptable,” Ustenko told the outlet.

    ——-
    Who is/are the winner?

    Military inventory depleted
    Energy production jeopardized
    Increase/Millions of refugees
    Food supplies/delivery inadequate
    Political stability ended in many country
    Economic function critically mismanaged
    Work ethics have changed
    Secrets are no longer possible

    #117690
    Germ
    Participant
    #117691
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Any Cabal genuinely intent upon world domination would at least attempt to insinuate it’s tentacles of Power into the top levels of its major competitors. Otherwise it’s intent to dominate “the World” can’t really be taken seriously as genuine. I mean, after all, what kind of obsessive world dominator complacently settles for second or third place? The game is KING of the hill, not Second Banana of the hill.

    For this patently obvious reason it is, in my opinion, a VERY safe bet that in any big fight there are representatives of BOTH (or more) sides placed as high as possible in the power structures of the OTHER side(s) . . . and keeping that more or less treasonous fact more or less top secret for damned good reasons.

    So for THAT (see preceding paragraph) patently obvious reason I sincerely recommend that no one trust any ( repeat, ANY) hierarchical power structure, because there are only two possibilities. Either the structure is so ineffective and irrelevant that no one has bothered to infiltrate and subvert it, or the structure is so powerful and important that it has already been infiltrated and subverted six ways from Sunday. Good luck on figuring out all of the skullduggery.

    This line of strategic reasoning invariably leads to a rather cynical, but nonetheless true, conclusion:
    ultimately the battle in the shared arena is between institutional (structured) power of EVERY kind, and truly sovereign individuals.

    Big fight. Neither side can win without (by that very fact of victory) eliminating the other side and thus bringing the ENTIRE game to an ignominious end. If there is no “other side” then there is no game. It s very very VERY unlikely for that to happen any time soon.

    The contest is authority vs sovereignty. I recommend striking some sort of acceptable balance between your personal sovereignty and all of those authority structures currently telling you what you absolutely have to do “or else”.

    So, let the games begin (or continue, or whatever) if that’s what you think is the best thing do at this time.

    #117692
    Germ
    Participant

    This occurred in my village, South Brent – immediately after the death vaxx was initially rolled out.
    I live less than 1 km from this “care” home.

    https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2021-01-19/11-die-after-covid-19-outbreak-at-devon-care-home

    It’s a planned culling.

    #117693
    John Day
    Participant

    Accelerated-end-of-life-care might be more accurate.

    #117694
    Noirette
    Participant

    Redneck posted:

    … several Russian regions, citing a June 2021 decree issued by the Ministry of Defense, announced they would begin vaccinating mobilized residents..

    Yes, afaik (more detail, description of on the ground actions would be needed to get some ‘solid’ overall picture), the jab is obligatory for the 300K called-up reservists, for now. Avoiding service has a 10-yr prison penalty on it, therefore refusing the jab, ditto. (So far Russia has not made jabs obligatory to the ‘populace’, only as tied to a professional role.. afaik.)

    Russia is also beset by Vax Opportunists, and the hype of ‘protekt citizens’ etc. The Gamaleya Inst. is at the forefront (eng.):

    https://gamaleya.org/en/research/vaktsina-protiv-covid-19/

    Reminded me of the Anthrax Vax mandated for US soldiers. (Less harmful for sure.)

    #117695
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @JohnDay

    The WEF & WHO could work that “accelerated-end-of-life-care” thing into a new slogan for hawking their wares:

    “Lifetime care, fast!”

    #117696
    John Day
    Participant

    “Ladies and Germs” “Beating The Mule” with pic of fall tomatoes, peppers and okra https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/beating-the-mule

    John Helmer in Moscow, “Dances With Bears”, is the longest-serving western journalist in Russia, and author of some insightful books.
    He recently said that US, Poland and local NATO members sabotaged the pipeline right away.
    In this 30 minute interview (sorry, not much transcript) Helmer says that there is open disagreement in Washington power circles between Galician-interest-neocons (Nuland, Blinken), which want to keep doubling down on war and the “Irish Catholics” (Kerry, Biden), who want to pause and think about this for a moment. (The news about the American P-8 Poseidon naval-bomber being right there when the sabotage happened is bound to be impacting policy debate in the halls-of-power. Are there secret negotiations with Russia yet?) Thanks FS.

    WAITING FOR NUCLEAR WAR IN WASHINGTON, COCKAHOOP IN WARSAW, THE GERMANS RUN FOR THE BUNKER, AGAIN — GORILLA RADIO REVEALS WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

    Modern economic theories have been developed in the past 300 years, a period of exponential growth of industrial capitalist economy, and more lately global financial capitalism, which is not the same, but assumes exponential-growth, while being st to maximally parasitize real-economy, which shrinks real-economy, independent of other physical limits to economic growth, like resource depletion and pollution.
    With “Parasitism” being the-name-of-the-game, there are also many covert parasitic draws speeding collapse of the financial system. The financial system is the guide for the physical economy, and it has lately placed almost all decision-making in the hands of short-term-extraction specialists, maximizing quarterly profits.
    The real-economy is fundamentally the life support system for humans on earth, but it has a lot of optional attachments, too. The optional economic sectors will suffer from a widespread fall in “discretionary spending” as people are forced to focus on core needs of food, fuel and shelter.
    Globalism has been “deflationary”, reducing costs and prices, but at the cost of poor foreign workers in high-pollution countries. That is like a one-time strip-mining of those people and countries, and it appears to be mostly over.
    The current inflation in the world is not due to economic overheating, as was arguably a big part of the case in the years around 1980, when Paul Volcker stopped $US inflation with extremely high interest rates, which mainly hurt working-people and industry.
    This inflation is due to a fall in production of goods and services, superimposed upon a chronically and acutely increased supply of money. The world was accustomed to the increase of cheap money, but real-economic-production has fallen-and-can’t-get-up. The starved, bled and overloaded mule has given more than it can sustain and needs the bloodletting to stop, more feed, and the load reduced.
    Raising interest rates to reduce inflation hurts the poor mule. Raising interest rates extracts more blood from industry and workers, at the same time that the industrial mule is being starved by oil and natural gas shortages and price-increases.
    What’s a central-planner to do? Wage-Price controls, last implemented under Richard Nixon, in a time when real economic growth still persisted, but prices had shot up from the American default on gold, and the oil-price-wars, left a bad-taste in every mouth. Such measures pick some businesses to bankrupt, and reward sly manipulation of financial loopholes by parasites extracting value. They are a form of central-economic-planning without much “planning”, a short-term move.

    Global central banking is suddenly making a broad announcement through the UN that this should be done in the whole world.
    The UN Demands All Central Banks Stop Rate Hikes And Switch To Price Controls Instead​ , Michael Every of Rabobank
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/un-demands-all-central-banks-stop-rate-hikes-and-switch-price-controls-instead

    #117697
    John Day
    Participant

    Moon of Alabama says “The expected financial crash is finally here”.
    ​ ​The central banks have misdiagnosed the reason for the currently high inflation rates. They were caused not only by too much stimulus provided by governments and the central banks but to a large part by the lack of supplies which is to the consequence of the pandemic and the ‘western’ sanctions following the war in Ukraine. By increasing interest rates the central banks fought against the wrong enemy. They made things worse.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/10/the-expected-financial-crash-is-finally-here.html#more

    ​Starved mule… ​ BRITISH ECONOMY IS COLLAPSING; IT’S THE ENERGY, STUPID!
    https://southfront.org/british-economy-is-collapsing-its-the-energy-stupid/

    Charge more for mule feed as the mule eats less and get paid more (temporarily).
    ​ ​Goldman strategists recap the latest developments that helped propel oil sharply higher today, namely the reports that in its first in-person meeting in Vienna this Wednesday, the cartel may cut oil output by as much as 1.5 mmb/d…
    ​ ​Reports suggest that OPEC+ is considering a production cut at its meeting on Wednesday, October 5, potentially larger than 1 mb/d. While such a cut would occur amid one of the tightest markets in recorded history, and ahead of a potential decline in Russian exports later this year, such a decision could be justified by the recent large decline in prices, down 40% since their June peak, with mounting global growth concerns.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/opec-taking-fed-and-goldman-buying-every-barrell-it-can-find

    #117698
    John Day
    Participant

    Everybody spies on everybody. China drops the gauntlet on NSA’s serial cyberattacks
    Beijing accuses US spy agency of using trojans, malware and other cyber weapons to bombard defense industry-linked university

    China drops the gauntlet on NSA’s serial cyberattacks

    North Korea is always sensitive about western military exercises in South Korea.
    Mach-17 ICBMs, are a form of “political speech”. They are expected to test another nuclear device underground soon.
    NORTH KOREAN BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFIANTLY FLEW OVER JAPAN
    https://southfront.org/north-korean-ballistic-missile-defiantly-flew-over-japan/

    “Stern-response” escalations.
    South Korea Vow “Stern Response” After North Korea Ballistic Missile Flies 4,500km At A Speed Of Mach 17
    https://www.zerohedge.com/military/japan-warns-residents-seek-shelter-immediately-after-north-korea-fires-missile-which-flies

    #117699
    Noirette
    Participant

    RT article, 3 Oct.

    Gazprom reveals hope for Nord Stream 2

    The remaining, undamaged, pipeline section is being emptied of gas for inspection.

    https://www.rt.com/business/563967-russia-gazprom-nord-stream-revival/

    According to this article NS 1 + 2 have 4 strings, and 4 ‘bombs’ (attacks, sabotage, of some kind) hit 3 of these strings, leaving one intact.

    Imho it is important to have some grasp of what the damage actually is, as I said before, and how it might have been accomplished before leaping to blaming one country or another. In any case non-State actors, in the sense of covert ops, or those pushing huge sums around, special interests, rogues, etc. are all over the place.

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