Oct 082022
 
 October 8, 2022  Posted by at 8:32 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Marc Chagall The watering trough 1925

 

Putin and Zelensky To Attend G20 – Indonesia (RT)
Merkel: Lasting Peace In Europe Only Possible With Russia’s Input (RT)
Russia Abandons The Dream Of A Greater Europe (RT)
US Media’s Intellectual No-Fly-Zone on Nord Stream (FAIR)
Lavrov Explains Why Russia Sees Ukraine As A Threat (RT)
EU Again Urged To Open Wallet For Kiev (RT)
Belgium Fails To Support New Round Of Sanctions Against Russia (RT)
Orban Urges Changes To EU Sanctions Policy (RT)
Joe Biden Is Not A Real President (Scarry)
OPEC Humiliates President Biden On A Global Stage (QTR)
Luxembourg Raises Red Flag Over Energy Price Caps (RT)
Citi: Financial Crisis May Surprise EU (RT)
November Surprise? (Jim Kunstler)
Washington Post Lying About Kremlin ‘Turmoil’ – Moscow (RT)
When Anti-Government Speech Becomes Sedition (Whitehead)
CDC: Record Number Of Children Hospitalized With Weakened Immune Systems (ZH)

 

 

This morning: Explosions on the Kerch bridge (Crimean bridge), which connects Crimea with Russia.

 

 

 

 

Macgregor

 

 

 

 

Ed Dowd

 

 

 

 

 

 

“We are deciding which hotels to put them up in – one for Mr. Putin and one for Mr. Zelensky..”

“..his press secretary, Sergey Nikiforov, in a comment to Ukrainian media, denied the information that Zelensky had decided to visit the G20 summit..”

Putin and Zelensky To Attend G20 – Indonesia (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky, will both travel to Bali in November for the G20 summit, an Indonesian diplomat has told UAE’s The National newspaper. If true, the summit will be the first event attended by both leaders since Russia’s military operation in Ukraine began. “Both have agreed [to attend],”Indonesia’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Husain Bagis, told The National on Friday. He conceded that “the situation isn’t easy because of the Ukraine-Russia war,” and said that his government is already planning how to manage the arrival of the two leaders. “We are deciding which hotels to put them up in – one for Mr. Putin and one for Mr. Zelensky,” he said.

The Kremlin confirmed in June that Putin would attend the summit, although spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that the format of Putin’s participation “is still not defined.” Kiev stated in August that Zelensky “believes that he should be on the territory of Ukraine,” but would “think about”making the trip if Putin were to attend in person. Today his press secretary, Sergey Nikiforov, in a comment to Ukrainian media, denied the information that Zelensky had decided to visit the G20 summit. US President Joe Biden and a number of other Western leaders urged Indonesian President Joko Widodo not to invite Putin to the summit in Bali.

However, Widodo resisted the pressure campaign and invited the Russian leader as planned. With Widodo having met both Zelensky and Putin earlier this summer in a bid to “invite the two leaders to open dialogue and stop the war,” Bagis told The National that Indonesia aims “to make the G20 a platform for peace, not conflict.” Biden also appears to have softened his exclusionary stance toward Putin, telling reporters on Thursday that it “remains to be seen” whether he would meet the Russian president on the sidelines of the summit. The State Department quickly stepped in to say that in the view of the entire government, “it cannot be business as usual when it comes to Russia.” Although Ukraine is not one of the world’s 20 largest economies, Zelensky was invited to Bali as a guest.

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Sustainable peace = Green peace?!

Wonder if Merkel is involved in secret talks with Russia.

Merkel: Lasting Peace In Europe Only Possible With Russia’s Input (RT)

Sustainable peace in Europe may only be achieved if Russia is part of it, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday. Speaking during the 77th anniversary of the German newspaper ‘Suddeutsche Zeitung,’ Merkel explained that while the West has been adamant in its support for Ukraine as the nation remains locked in conflict with Russia, it should also keep its mind open about what might seem as “unthinkable” now – Moscow’s future role in Europe’s affairs. She stressed that “a future European security architecture within international law will meet the requirements” only if it involves Russia. “As long as we haven’t achieved that, the Cold War is not really over either,” she added.

Merkel described February 24 – the day Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine – as a “turning point,” adding that statements made by various parties to the conflict should be taken “seriously and not to be classified as a bluff from the start.” She was apparently referring to recent comments made by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who signaled that Moscow would use “all means to defend Russia and our people” if its territorial integrity was threatened. He also warned the West that those who use nuclear blackmail against Russia “should know that the wind rose can turn around.”

Merkel earlier urged the Western world to take Putin and his words seriously, arguing that such an approach is “by no means a sign of weakness,” but rather “a sign of political wisdom.” She also noted that former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, who before his death, was widely regarded as her political mentor, would have kept an open mind about “how relations to and with Russia could one day be redeveloped” after hostilities in Ukraine end. Such a stance, however, did not sit well with Ukrainian officials. Last week, Andrey Melnik, Kiev’s outgoing ambassador to Berlin, called Merkel’s attitude towards Russia and its role in European security “almost perverse.”

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“A Greater Europe didn’t happen; a Greater Asia that includes Russia is de facto emerging.”

Russia Abandons The Dream Of A Greater Europe (RT)

Re-uniting the divided people of Russia and gathering the lands where they live is essentially the core element of the new Russian idea that Putin is offering to his compatriots. The immediate task of course is to integrate the new territories that have just joined Russia following the referendums. This requires a major effort in many areas and at various levels. It is anything but easy. Russian forces, which for months have been advancing on Ukrainian territory, suddenly find themselves in a situation where they have to abandon some areas which are now legally Russian land, populated by Russian citizens who just voted in the referendums and now face severe reprisals at the hands of the counter-attacking Ukrainians.

Next comes the need to rebuild the cities and villages ravaged in the war, repair damaged infrastructure, restart the economy, provide communal services, and re-organize public administration, health services, and education. Of paramount importance is socializing the millions of residents of the four regions who were automatically granted Russian citizenship, in the Russian national environment. Moscow has some experience of that from 2014 when Crimea and Sevastopol joined Russia, but doing this in a wartime situation is more challenging. A lot will depend, of course, on how the Russian forces cope on the frontline that passes very close to Donetsk and Kherson, and which still leaves the city of Zaporozhiye in Ukraine’s rear.

Even if the Ukrainian counter-offensive runs out of steam and the Russians resume their advance, none of these tasks can be accomplished quickly. This part of the new Russian national idea will keep the nation busy for a long time. Putin’s concept, however, doesn’t stop there. It is not so much about restoring the Soviet Union: in Putin’s words, such a restoration is not Moscow’s objective. The Baltics, the South Caucasus and Central Asia are probably not envisaged as part of the new construct. However, as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hinted on the State Duma floor, in future other Ukrainian regions might be given the chance to follow Kherson and Zaporozhiye. To Putin, Greater Russia is a distinct civilization which opposes not only America’s hegemonic policies, but also the West’s projection of its values as universal.

This is an about-face not only from Gorbachev’s musings about a common European home, but also from Putin’s own travails in trying to forge a Greater Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok, and his efforts to find a way for Russia to join NATO. A Greater Europe didn’t happen; a Greater Asia that includes Russia is de facto emerging. As to a Greater Russia, this requires more than a leader’s imagination. The Soviet Union, as the living generations remember it, was very much the product of the Great Patriotic War. The hybrid war with the West, of which Ukraine is only a small part, will doubtless reshape Russia. The question is, will it also transform it to fit the vision of a powerful economy and a vibrant society, faithful to its declared values – the substance, rather than the form of a Greater Russia.

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“A 2019 Pentagon-funded study from the RAND Corporation on how best to exploit “Russia’s economic, political and military vulnerabilities and anxieties” included a recommendation to “Reduce [Russian] Natural Gas Exports and Hinder Pipeline Expansions.”

US Media’s Intellectual No-Fly-Zone on Nord Stream (FAIR)

Any serious coverage of the Nord Stream attack should acknowledge that opposition to the pipeline has been a centerpiece of the US grand strategy in Europe. The long-term goal has been to keep Russia isolated and disjointed from Europe, and to keep the countries of Europe tied to US markets. Ever since German and Russian energy companies signed a deal to begin development on Nord Stream 2, the entire machinery of Washington has been working overtime to scuttle it. A 2019 Pentagon-funded study from the RAND Corporation on how best to exploit “Russia’s economic, political and military vulnerabilities and anxieties” included a recommendation to “Reduce [Russian] Natural Gas Exports and Hinder Pipeline Expansions.”

The study noted that a “first step would involve stopping Nord Stream 2,” and that natural gas “from the United States and Australia could provide a substitute.” This RAND study also prophetically recommended “providing more US military equipment and advice” to Ukraine in order to “lead Russia to increase its direct involvement in the conflict and the price it pays for it,” even though it acknowledged that “Russia might respond by mounting a new offensive and seizing more Ukrainian territory.” The Obama administration opposed the pipeline. As part of the major sanctions package against Russia in 2017, the Trump administration began sanctioning any company doing work on the pipeline. The move generated outrage in Germany, where many saw it as an attempt to meddle with European markets. In 2019, the US implemented more sanctions on the project.

Upon coming into office, President Joe Biden made opposition to the pipeline one of his administration’s top priorities. During his confirmation hearings in 2021, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told Congress he was “determined to do whatever I can to prevent” Nord Stream 2 from being completed. Months later, the State Department reiterated that “any entity involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline risks US sanctions and should immediately abandon work on the pipeline.” In July 2021, the sanctions were relaxed only after contentious negotiations with the German government. The New York Times (7/21/21) reported that the administration and Germany still had “profound disagreements” about the project.

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“We all remember how [Zelensky] declared in January Ukraine’s intention to acquire nuclear weapons. Apparently, this idea has long been stuck in his mind..”

Lavrov Explains Why Russia Sees Ukraine As A Threat (RT)

A call by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky for NATO members to deploy nuclear weapons against Russia is a reminder of why Moscow launched military action against his country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. “Yesterday, Zelensky called on his Western masters to deliver a preemptive nuclear strike on Russia,” Moscow’s top diplomat stated during a media conference on Wednesday. In doing so, the Ukrainian leader “showed to the entire world the latest proof of the threats that come from the Kiev regime.” Lavrov said Russia’s special military operation had been launched to neutralize those threats. He dismissed as “laughable” an attempt to downplay Zelensky’s words made by his press secretary, Sergey Nikoforov. “We all remember how [Zelensky] declared in January Ukraine’s intention to acquire nuclear weapons. Apparently, this idea has long been stuck in his mind,” the Russian minister said.


On Thursday, Zelensky told the Australian Lowy Institute that NATO must carry out preemptive strikes against Russia so that it “knows what to expect” if it uses its nuclear arsenal. He claimed that such action would “eliminate the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons,” before recalling how he urged other nations to preemptively punish Russia before it launched its military action against his country. “I once again appeal to the international community, as it was before February 24: Preemptive strikes so that [the Russians] know what will happen to them if they use it, and not the other way around,” he said. His spokesman then claimed that people interpreting Zelensky’s words as a call for a preemptive nuclear strike were wrong, and that Ukraine would never use such rhetoric.

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Cold and hunger and billions for Azov. A winning model.

EU Again Urged To Open Wallet For Kiev (RT)

Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, will urge member states to set aside more funds to cover enhanced military assistance for Ukraine. The top diplomat shared his plan with reporters at an informal EU summit in Prague on Friday. “I will ask the leaders to support the proposal for a new tranche for European Peace Facility to continue providing military support to Ukraine, also to the training mission,” Borrell said, as quoted by Reuters. Earlier this week Borrell expressed hope that at the next Foreign Affairs Council gathering on October 17, the EU will be able to “formally launch” its training mission for Ukrainian armed forces. Writing in his blog, the diplomat also claimed that the EU would “reinforce” its strategy of supporting Ukraine – “militarily, financially and politically.”

The European Peace Facility (EPF) that Borell referred to, is a mechanism created last year to enhance the EU’s ability to act as a global security provider. The EPF reimburses governments for military equipment supplied to Kiev, “including items designed to deliver lethal force for defensive purposes.” The latest round of funding for Ukraine under the EPF, worth €500 million, was agreed by the European Council in July. With this package, the total EU contribution for the country within this framework amounts to €2.5 billion. The EPF has a ceiling of about €6 billion and is supposed to support not only Ukraine but also other countries. As EU nations face an energy and cost-of-living crisis, exacerbated by anti-Russia sanctions and a reduction in Russian energy supplies, Borrell earlier urged people in the bloc to combat “the temptation to abandon Ukraine.”

Responding earlier this week to the EU’s plan of creating a training mission for Kiev’s armed forces, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that such a move would only “fix the EU in the status of a participant in the conflict.” In April, she accused the bloc of turning into “NATO’s economic relations department.” This followed Borrell’s tweet that “This war (in Ukraine) must be won on the battlefield.” Moscow has consistently warned Western countries against providing military support to Kiev. It argues that such assistance would only prolong the conflict and will lead to unnecessary casualties. Ukraine, in turn, has repeatedly claimed that the EU is too slow in its weapons supplies and that it doesn’t always provide what Kiev had requested.

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I found this strange. Macron wanted a new club, the European Political Community (EPC), which is EU plus some others?! Why? Betcha it’s so Ukraine can be part of some club too.

Belgium Fails To Support New Round Of Sanctions Against Russia (RT)

The Belgian government decided against endorsing a new round of EU anti-Russia trade restrictions, the local press reported on Thursday, citing remarks made by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. Speaking on the sidelines of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Prague, Czech Republic, the head of the Belgian government explained that “as the economic cost of sanctions becomes higher, it becomes difficult to show solidarity” with Ukraine. “The sanctions have worked very well so far,” the prime minister said, “but the further we go, the more we talk about sanctions that hurt our own economy more than Russia’s.” His country therefore declined to support the eighth package of sanctions when EU member states voted on it this week.

Belgium didn’t vote against it either, because “we do not want to break European solidarity,” De Croo was quoted as saying. A vote against the proposal any EU member state would have blocked the package from being approved. Belgium was reportedly the only nation to abstain. Earlier this week, Belgian MP Andre Flahaut, who represents the province of Walloon Brabant, expressed concerns about the impact of the upcoming sanctions on his constituents. Two factories owned by the Russian metals giant NLMK, which are located in the Belgian province, may have to shut down, the lawmaker warned. The EU ultimately allowed a transition period of two years to switch from semi-finished steel products originating in Russia to alternative supplies.

There were also concerns in Belgium that the EU would try to restrict trade in Russian diamonds, potentially impacting the jewelry businesses of Antwerp. Some news outlets reported that the country blocked the proposed inclusion of such sanctions in the package. When asked about Russian gemstones, Prime Minister De Croo said his government would not have opposed a ban, if it were necessary, but the European Commission decided against it because imports from Russia had fallen significantly without any formal restrictions. The EPC is a new political club proposed earlier this year by French President Emmanuel Macron. The forum is supposed to bring together EU member states and nations that aspire to become part of the economic bloc, plus its traditional allies like the UK and Norway. The meeting of EPC leaders in Prague is the first of its kind.

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Orban could soon walk out. They refuse to give him his money anyway. Why stay?

Orban Urges Changes To EU Sanctions Policy (RT)

Sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine have failed, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday, urging Brussels to change its policy. “The sanctions didn’t fulfill the hopes that were pinned on them, the war hasn’t ended,” Orban wrote on Facebook. “Europe is slowly bleeding and Russia is making money in the meantime,” he pointed out. The Hungarian leader said that it was obvious to him that “the failed policy of Brussels must be changed.” The statement was made on the same day that the EU announced an eighth round of sanctions on Russia. The new curbs include an oil price cap, trade restrictions amounting to 7 billion euros and individual sanctions against 30 people and seven entities. The move comes after the official inclusion of Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions into Russia [..]


Orban has frequently criticized the EU’s sanctions on Russia, calling them counterproductive. Hungary, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy, has maintained a relatively neutral stance during the conflict in Ukraine, condemning the use of force by Moscow, but refusing to supply weapons to Kiev. Brussels expected that the unprecedented restrictions would cripple Russia’s economy and prevent it from funding its military operation. But Moscow was able to redirect its oil and gas to Asian markets, while also profiting from growing energy prices. The policy has also largely backfired for the EU, causing a spike in inflation, and putting Europe into an energy crisis. The situation deteriorated even further in late September when the Nord Stream pipelines were sabotaged.

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“Biden Threatening Nuclear Armageddon After Six Years of Media Freakout Over Trump Tweets”

Joe Biden Is Not A Real President (Scarry)

Did anyone else burst into a bout of uncontrollable, psychotic laughter upon reading the report that President Biden just told a room full of Democrat donors that the risk of nuclear “armageddon” has arrived? I can’t be the only one. Here are some headlines from the not-too-distant past that immediately came to mind: • We must Trump-proof the nuclear codes before 20243 NBC News, March 12, 2022 • Gen. Milley feared Trump might launch nuclear attack, made secret calls to China, new book says USA Today, Sept. 14, 2021 • Trump is leading us into nuclear war, says Daniel Ellsberg (and he should know, he used to plan them) Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Feb. 1, 2018 • Donald Trump s Nuclear-War Threat The New Yorker, Aug. 9, 2017 • Clinton Says Trump Could Lead US Into Nuclear War Roll Call, June 2, 2016.

So, wait a second. You mean we just spent the last six years with all of Washington and the national media swearing to voters that Trump had us on the brink of nuclear annihilation, only for it to be Biden, their choice for president, to get us right up on the cliff’s edge? If that doesn’t have you pulling tufts of hair out of your scalp until it bleeds, check your pulse. This can’t be real. Biden has to be fake. This must be a computer simulation. For four years under Trump, gas was cheap, the stock market was booming, and a trip to the grocery store didn’t require customers to take out a second mortgage.

Now under Biden, OPEC is gratuitously choking the energy supply, basic necessities are scarce, and a major war has American taxpayers spending more than $67 billion (and counting) to a country that’s 5,000 miles away. Oh, and now we have to worry about a nuclear confrontation with a global superpower! sIf it were a movie script, not a single producer would find it believable. The writer would never work again. But this is real? We elected a president, in earnest, who is this incompetent and terrible? It’s nuclear war he’s warning of! This is the absolute worst-case scenario. The severity can’t be overstated. There aren’t enough mean Trump tweets in the world to excuse the state of things under this “president.” I refuse to believe it. Biden isn’t a real president.

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“..they 1) are not our friends, 2) do not care what we want, 3) do not take us seriously and 4) are not here to help us and/or Biden get re-elected by lowering prices..”

OPEC Humiliates President Biden On A Global Stage (QTR)

[..] yesterday OPEC humiliated President Biden on a global stage by cutting oil production after he specifically lobbied them not to. There’s no “nice” way of putting it – they straight-up snubbed the U.S. and have now, in my opinion, made it officially clear that they 1) are not our friends, 2) do not care what we want, 3) do not take us seriously and 4) are not here to help us and/or Biden get re-elected by lowering prices. To use Biden’s parlance, “Let me tell you something, Jack – we’re not in bed with the Saudis anymore. They are more allied with China and Russia than they have ever been, at arguably the most crucial moment in recent history for our global economy.”

As I pointed out last night on my podcast, there was nothing quite like the “fist bump heard round the world” a couple months ago when President Biden – who spends his time here domestically fighting for “equality” and human rights – decided to embrace the Saudis, and their track record of disapproving of gay rights, murdering journalists and multiple other human rights violations – instead of simply ramping up domestic oil production here in the U.S. Biden probably went into the meeting he had with MBS months ago thinking we had some type of leverage, like we have had decades ago. The sad reality is that we simply don’t anymore: the Saudis have the oil, they have gold, and now they have allies just as big and powerful as the U.S. when combined. And those allies provide financial and military support at a crucial juncture for geopolitics.

Meanwhile, our President remains tone deaf and while his supporters remain immune to what can only be described as blatantly obvious double standards. With the left hand, Biden was vilifying Exxon and Chevron here in the U.S., basically encouraging them to not bring more supply online, whilst blaming “gas station owners” and other people who don’t set the price of refined fuels. With the right hand, he was fist bumping a man who publicly disapproves of gay rights and ordered the murder of a critical journalist, in order to try and get him to unleash more oil on the global stage. And instead of him taking us seriously, he did the exact opposite of what Biden wanted yesterday – cut oil production, raising prices – and humiliated Biden on the global stage.

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“Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin has described the eighth package of anti-Russia penalties as the “first EU sanctions package” against Serbia.”

Luxembourg Raises Red Flag Over Energy Price Caps (RT)

The European Union may be left with no energy supplies after introducing gas price caps, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said as he arrived at the bloc’s summit in Prague on Friday. “Implementing a price cap is not the only thing,” Bettel said. “Because, after, maybe we can’t get energy. So then, maybe we have a price cap but no energy.” EU leaders are expected to discuss how to deal with gas prices to curb soaring energy bills during their informal summit in the Czech capital. The talks will include a proposal on a gas price cap. “We have to know we’re not the only customers in the world,” he added. “So, we have to be very careful about decisions that we take that sound good on paper but where consequences can be problematic.”


The issue has been hotly contested for weeks, with Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands in opposition to any form of cap due to concerns regarding security of supply. On Thursday, Brussels announced the eighth package of restrictions on Russia, which includes a price cap and “further restrictions” on the maritime transportation of Russian crude oil and petroleum products to third countries. The latest batch of penalties has been blasted by several EU nations, including Hungary and Serbia. Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that anti-Russia sanctions had failed, adding that the bloc was “slowly bleeding” due to the drastic steps. Meanwhile, Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin has described the eighth package of anti-Russia penalties as the “first EU sanctions package” against Serbia.

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“The euro area is at risk of a financial meltdown on the same scale as the crisis it suffered a decade ago..”

They should be so lucky.

Citi: Financial Crisis May Surprise EU (RT)

The euro area is at risk of a financial meltdown on the same scale as the crisis it suffered a decade ago, Citi analysts have told CNBC. They cited Germany’s massive energy relief plan as the major threat to the bloc’s stability, the media outlet reports on Friday. According to the report, Wall Street bank analysts have raised concerns about the violent bond market moves and the European governments’ plans to borrow vast sums of money. They said that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s relief package, worth €200 billion ($195 billion) and aimed at tackling soaring energy prices, “may soften the coming recession but also poses risks.” Those risks relate to the question of how the package will be financed and what that could do to inflation, to Germany’s sovereign bond yields, to the ECB’s benchmark rate, and to the borrowing plans of other euro nations that may do the same.

“The risk is that others may follow that example,” Christian Schulz, deputy chief European economist at Citi, told CNBC, citing the UK’s recent bond market meltdown after unfunded tax cuts by the government. Schulz explained that Germany could “afford” any debt financing thanks to its low debt-to-GDP ratio and lower external funding needs, but the package could open the door for less fiscally prudent countries to want to borrow large amounts and issue new debt. That could potentially lead to trouble like that seen in Britain.

Citi analysts forecast that German debt financing could force tighter ECB policy, which could then also send yields surging in the euro area. “The risk is that this same dynamic [as seen in Britain] evolves on the continent as well now,”Schulz warned. Meanwhile, data by Saxo Bank show that an ECB stress indicator for the Eurozone’s financial system – which looks at tensions in bond, equity and money markets – has risen from below 0.1 at the start of the year to almost 0.5 so far. During the Eurozone debt crisis in 2009-2010, the index exceeded 0.6.


German producer prices. Past 2 years: up 60%. Past 40 years before that: up 60%.

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“His staff must be marinated in evidence of the RussiaGate misdeeds — reams of which have been independently documented in the public record..”

November Surprise? (Jim Kunstler)

Adults understand that politics is a crooked business, but through the whole of US history until now filters existed in the public arena that allowed for enough sorting out of truth from untruth to enable the formation of a reality-based consensus — which, in turn, allowed daily life to operate coherently. The Party of Chaos has thrown the kill-switch on that crucial function by corrupting the news business and subverting the new social media. The result is a public culture of pervasive and immersive lying, and a stupendous institutional failure of the courts to correct any of that behavior. Case-in-point: the John Durham Special Counsel Investigation on the origin of the RussiaGate fraud. It now apparently terminates in the prosecution of the tiniest minnow (Igor Danchenko) in that vast inland sea of corruption.

Some of the figures who carried out the perfidious seditions of RussiaGate are still employed in the Department of Justice and the FBI, and to this day are active in the continued cover-up of the crimes committed to overthrow President Trump, notably: Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and others. Mr. Durham is supposedly among the highest officers of the federal courts charged with enforcing a very particular region of criminality.

His staff must be marinated in evidence of the RussiaGate misdeeds — reams of which have been independently documented in the public record, ranging from (just for example) the nefarious activities of figures like Nellie Ohr, wife of DOJ higher-up Bruce Ohr, working as go-between with Christopher Steele and the FBI, to the spectacular failures of Judge James Boasberg and his FISA court, not to mention the well-known machinations of Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Andrew McCabe, Rod Rosenstein, Dana Boente, James Baker, Andrew Weissmann, Jeannie Rhee, Aaron Zebley, Brandon Van Grack, Robert Mueller, and other top officials who worked sedulously against the public interest. All these remain apparently off-the-hook for their sketchy activities.

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“Peskov told the Post that disagreement between Putin and his aides is “part of the usual working process.”

Washington Post Lying About Kremlin ‘Turmoil’ – Moscow (RT)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that a Washington Post report alleging “turmoil” and confrontation in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle is “absolutely not true.” The report in question was attributed to anonymous US spies. “A member of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle has voiced disagreement directly to the Russian president” over the conflict in Ukraine, the report stated, alleging that “the criticism marks the clearest indication yet of turmoil within Russia’s leadership.” No source was given for this report, which was attributed to “information obtained by US intelligence.” Peskov told the Post that disagreement between Putin and his aides is “part of the usual working process.”

“There are working arguments: about the economy, about the conduct of the military operation. There are arguments about the education system. This is part of the normal working process, and it is not a sign of any split,” he said, adding that the information supposedly obtained by American intelligence is “absolutely not true.” American officials have previously boasted about waging an “info war”against Russia by leaking false intelligence reports to the media, NBC News reported in April. Intelligence officials, for example, admitted to fabricating a warning that Russia was preparing to use chemical weapons in Ukraine in March, leaking the story to the Washington Post despite it being based on “low confidence” intelligence.

A report claiming that Putin was “being misled by his own advisers” was also reportedly made up or exaggerated by US spies. “There’s no way you can prove or disprove that stuff,” a retired intelligence operative told NBC. The Post’s latest report was also received with doubt by the US’ European allies. According to the newspaper, “senior security officials in Europe said they were not aware that anyone had dared to challenge Putin directly over the course of events in Ukraine,” and said that they hadn’t seen the supposed US intelligence report that the article was based on.

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Terrorists.

When Anti-Government Speech Becomes Sedition (Whitehead)

Anti-government speech has become a four-letter word. In more and more cases, the government is declaring war on what should be protected political speech whenever it challenges the government’s power, reveals the government’s corruption, exposes the government’s lies, and encourages the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices. Indeed, there is a long and growing list of the kinds of speech that the government considers dangerous enough to red flag and subject to censorship, surveillance, investigation and prosecution: hate speech, conspiratorial speech, treasonous speech, threatening speech, inflammatory speech, radical speech, anti-government speech, extremist speech, etc.

Things are about to get even dicier for those who believe in fully exercising their right to political expression. Indeed, the government’s seditious conspiracy charges against Stewart Rhodes, the founder of Oath Keepers, and several of his associates for their alleged involvement in the January 6 Capitol riots puts the entire concept of anti-government political expression on trial. [..] In recent years, the government has used the phrase “domestic terrorist” interchangeably with “anti-government,” “extremist” and “terrorist” to describe anyone who might fall somewhere on a very broad spectrum of viewpoints that could be considered “dangerous.” The ramifications are so far-reaching as to render almost every American with an opinion about the government or who knows someone with an opinion about the government an extremist in word, deed, thought or by association.

You see, the government doesn’t care if you or someone you know has a legitimate grievance. It doesn’t care if your criticisms are well-founded. And it certainly doesn’t care if you have a First Amendment right to speak truth to power. What the government cares about is whether what you’re thinking or speaking or sharing or consuming as information has the potential to challenge its stranglehold on power. Why else would the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies be investing in corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Why else would the Biden Administration be likening those who share “false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information” to terrorists?

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3 weeks after the New England Journal of medicine said the vaccines destroy your immune system, the stupid circus just goes on.

CDC: Record Number Of Children Hospitalized With Weakened Immune Systems (ZH)

Official data suggests that more children and young adults than ever have been hospitalized with colds and respiratory issues, according to the Daily Mail, which notes that “experts have repeatedly warned lockdowns and measures used to contain Covid like face masks also suppressed the spread of germs which are crucial for building a strong immune system in children.” According to a retrospective report by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), levels of common cold viruses hit their highest level among non-adults in August 2021 – when levels had been much lower in previous years during the same month. According to the data which sampled nearly 700 children, nearly 55% tested positive for RSV in August 2021. Of that, 450 were moved to emergency departments where nearly 35% had RSV – which is comparable to the winter months when over 30% of patients regularly have the virus, according to the report.


“The CDC samples random pediatric hospitals across the US and makes national estimates to gauge how prevalent viruses are. There were nearly 700 children in hospital sick with a respiratory virus across the seven wards studied in August last year, of which just over half had tested positive for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – which is normally benign. This was the highest levels ever recorded in summer, and came off the back of a year and a half of brutal pandemic restrictions forcing many to stay indoors. The record all-time high is in December, when 60 per cent of children on wards with respiratory illnesses were infected with RSV.” -Daily Mail

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Home Forums Debt Rattle October 8 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 68 total)
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  • #117963

    Marc Chagall The watering trough 1925   • Putin and Zelensky To Attend G20 – Indonesia (RT) • Merkel: Lasting Peace In Europe Only Possible With
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle October 8 2022]

    #117964
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Check list for survival through the first couple of bottlenecks. Please add.

    1. Occupancy of, or access to, 500+ square metres of fertile land per person in a temperate zone.
    2. Access to fresh water via collection from a local [and permanent] pond/stream/well. Also, the ability to collect and store roof water. Equipment to filter water where necessary.
    3. Systems for utilisation of ‘greywater’.
    4. Good working knowledge of the life cycles of plants that produce food, and the ability to harvest and store seeds from one season to the next.
    5. Fruit trees already planted and already producing fruit Knowledge of pruning techniques and propagation.
    6. Recycling systems for all organic materials and conversion into compost and soil conditioners.
    7. Thermally efficient dwelling warmed by passive solar that can stand local temperature minima without additional heat.
    8. Firewood within bicycle or handcart range for cooking on open fire as required.
    9. A substantial store of canned and dried foods, plus vegetable oils.
    10. Candles, oil lamps, LED lamps and batteries, mineral oils, solvents, paints etc.
    11. At least one bicycle per person, plus spare tyres and spare brake pads and cables etc.
    12. A good stock of durable clothing and footwear.
    13. A substantial stock of toothpaste, washing powder, liquid detergents, bleach etc. And iodine (KI, KI2) for cuts and external infection and grazes etc. Iodine may also be potentially useful in event of limited nuclear war.
    14. Good relations with local people who have skills and equipment
    15. A healthy attitude towards government, i.e. zero confidence in any politicians or bureaucrat to ever be anything other than an obstacle to genuine progress. Zero expectation of assistance when TSHTF.
    16. Not more than a few kilos above ideal weight (scientifically, mass). Physically fit.
    17. Ability to survive without any electricity or petroleum products
    18. A good range of hand tools and means to keep them sharp as required.
    19. Knowledge of how to construct and use weapons when the time comes for such things.
    20. Desirable but not essential, a greenhouse and/or cold-frames to grow plants in cooler months

    #117965
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Check list for survival through the first couple of bottlenecks. Please add.

    Zero mention of weapons for self defence….why is that?
    I’m a certified instructor for rifle, pistol, and shotgun…
    One or all will be very important for survival…IMHO,,,

    #117966
    Red
    Participant

    Abstract
    We make a quantitative comparison between the COVID-19 mortality statistics of the Government of Canada (Public Health Agency of Canada; managed by the Chief Public Health Officer) and calculated total excess all-cause mortality (ACM) (deaths from all causes) for the Covid period. The claimed “COVID-19 deaths” mortality is almost double the total excess ACM for the same period, which we find to be irreconcilable with reality. We describe how these numbers have been uncritically used in public Government communications, by leading media, and in a recent scientific article co-authored by Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, which claims that “without the use of restrictive measures and without high levels of vaccination, Canada could have experienced […] almost a million deaths.” We conclude that the COVID-19 mortality statistics are unreliable at best, and possibly meaningless.

    Conclusion
    We determined the expected defined Covid period mortality (nominally from 11 March 2020 to 14 May 2022), in the absence of the Covid period circumstances to be: (657.1 ± 1.3) x 103 deaths.

    The actual defined Covid period mortality was 679,645 deaths.

    Therefore, the defined Covid period excess mortality is (22.5 ± 1.3) x 103 deaths, which is significantly smaller than the Government’s reported “COVID-19 deaths” number of 40,684 for the same period.

    These numbers (22.5K vs 40.7K) cannot be reconciled by any reasonable explanation, which we have explored.

    The recent suggestion by Ogden et al., derived from using the Government-reported “COVID-19 deaths” mortality, that “without the use of restrictive measures and without high levels of vaccination, Canada could have experienced […] almost a million deaths.”, appears to be palpably disconnected from reality (Figure 5).

    In conclusion, our analysis overall leads us to suggest that the COVID-19 mortality statistics collected and presented by the Government of Canada (Public Health Agency of Canada) are unreliable at best, and possibly meaningless.

    Proof That Canada’s COVID-19 Mortality Statistics Are Incorrect

    #117967
    John Day
    Participant

    Very good inputs on strategies for non-attachment, “equanimity” last night, not getting eaten up by negative emotional reactions.

    AFKTT has a good checklist, though it needs to be modified for your own location.
    V.Arnold asks “why no guns”, which is a personal question. In many cases a person might become more of a target with a gun, and yet not really be immediately ready and able to quickly and efficiently kill other people with it.
    Eat Or Be Eaten : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5uB9OM5c6Y

    #117968
    John Day
    Participant

    Zombie Empire follows that song from Zombie Birdhouse. Picture of working kitchen sink 🙂
    https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/zombie-empire

    ​ Anything “President Biden” says is deniable by Washington, and can be considered a trial-balloon to evaluate responses.​ Moon of Alabama (Germany)​
    ​ ​NATO and Ukraine both believe that the Russian forces, even after receiving the 300,000 mobilized troops, will not be able to defeat Ukraine. This inability to achieve the desired objectives, they believe, will compel Russia to resort to the use of tactical nuclear weapons on Ukrainian targets in order to break the will to resist on the part of the Zelensky government.
    ​ ​The reality, however, is that Russian nuclear doctrine does not allow for such a scenario. Indeed, there are only two conditions where Russian nuclear doctrine permits the employment of nuclear weapons.
    ​ ​No 1. “[I]n response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it and/or its allies,” the 2020 Russian Nuclear Posture document states, or
    ​ ​No 2. “in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy.”
    ​ ​U.S. nuclear posture, however, does allow it.
    ​ ​All the war mongering talk and reports about Russia’s alleged threat of nuclear weapon use in Ukraine is totally unfounded. That ‘western’ media suddenly engage in it shows that it is part of a well directed propaganda campaign.
    ​Meanwhile the Ukrainian comedian has called for ‘preemptive’ nuclear strikes on Russia:
    President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky believes that “NATO should make it impossible for Russia to use nuclear weapons.”
    “Preemptive strikes are needed so that they know what awaits them if they use nuclear weapons. Not the other way around, waiting for Russia’s nuclear strikes and then saying, ‘oh, you’ve done that, then get this,'” he said on Thursday, speaking via video link at Australia’s think tank, the Lowy Institute.​..​
    ..One ..must ask what this propaganda campaign about a non existing threat is really about. Could it be in preparation of a false flag incident in which a U.S or British nuclear device is used in Ukraine to then blame it on Russia as the pretext of an all out military engagement in Ukraine?
    ​ ​Setting off a tactical nuclear weapon as a pretext for a direct US and Polish military incursion into Western Ukraine – perhaps to preserve a Ukrainian rump state there, in the event that Kiev looks likely to fall somewhere down the line in the conflict.
    ​ ​False flags and/or WMDs are after all the indisputable standard US MO and playbook for pretexts for military action from the Spanish American War, to Vietnam, to Iraq, to Syria.
    ​ ​The Pentagon has been openly and proudly developing and deploying what they call “more usable” battlefield nuclear weapons, specifically for use against Russia and China.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/10/bidens-fearmonges-about-a-russian-nuclear-threat-that-no-one-has-made.html#more

    ​Denied:
    “After President Biden’s ultra-alarmist nuclear “Armageddon” statements related to the war in Ukraine given at a fundraiser in New York City Thursday night, naturally the first question to arise was whether his assessment is based in any clear evidence or observed heightened nuclear posture coming out of Russia. US intelligence has answered…
    On Friday CNN cited multiple unnamed US intelligence officials to say “The US still has seen no evidence that Putin is moving toward using Russia’s nuclear capability, nor is there any intelligence showing he’s decided to do so.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bidens-nuclear-armageddon-statements-not-based-any-evidence-us-intelligence

    John Helmer at Dances With Bears explains the position now taken by Polish president Andrezej Duda, welcoming US nuclear weapons into Poland, 12 minutes from Moscow. It is speculated that this may already be the case.

    POLAND ESCALATES WAR IN EUROPE WITH NUCLEAR BOMB THREAT TO KREMLIN

    ​ Biden’s Secret Promise To OPEC Backfires
    ​ ​In 2020, Democrats blocked Trump’s proposal to buy American oil at $24 a barrel. Yesterday, a Biden official disclosed a secret offer to buy OPEC+ oil at $80 a barrel.
    ​ ​The confusion around the Biden administration’s petroleum policy was cleared up yesterday after a senior official revealed that the White House had made a secret offer to buy up to 200 million barrels of OPEC+ oil to replenish the SPR in exchange for OPEC+ not cutting oil production. The official said the White House wanted to reassure OPEC+ that the US “won’t leave them hanging dry.”
    https://michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/bidens-secret-promise-to-opec-backfires

    #117969
    John Day
    Participant

    Eleni sent this article from David Chu, Love Letter to Ireland​, in which he makes a very strong case that the Irish external debt per capita of about $600,000(US) is unserviceable as interest rates rise. It is by far the highest in the world. He foresees the Irish being completely taken again, but what remains?
    Perhaps the more salient point he makes is that the US Fed is faced with a situation similar to early 1980 when the US Treasury bond market briefly went buyerless, similar to what just flashed in the UK “gilt” market. This is set to happen again, and is the reason that the Fed is raising rates sharply. If the Fed does not raise rates sharply enough to keep buyers interested, the western government-debt Ponzi scheme will collapse. No funding for governments.
    https://www.unz.com/article/love-letter-to-ireland/?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=article

    Charles Hugh Smith: We Blew It: Malinvestment and the Plundering of Productive Assets
    ​ ​We blew it: rather than investing in a sustainable mix of energy and in increasing the productivity of labor and industrial processes, we squandered irreplaceable oceans of capital and credit in oh-so profitable skims and scams such as $10 trillion in stock buybacks and completely unproductive speculative absurdities.
    ​ ​All the capital that was malinvested in shifting production overseas, financial scheming and speculation cannot be replaced. All the credit that was squandered on skims and scams (borrow billions to fund stock buybacks, borrow trillions to reward cronies and buy the complicity of the masses) is now an unstable toxic dump that threatens a financial system that is now the crumbling keystone of the entire global economy.
    http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/10/we-blew-it-malinvestment-and-plundering.html

    ​Michael Hudson : A Roadmap to Escape the West’s Stranglehold (excerpts)
    “Any idea of a common currency has to start with a currency-swap arrangement among existing member countries. Most trade will be in their own currencies. But to settle the inevitable imbalances (balance-of-payments surpluses and deficits), an artificial currency will be created by a new Central Bank…
    ..But unlike the IMF’s SDR system, the aim of this new alternative Central Bank will not be simply to subsidize economic polarization and indebtedness. Keynes proposed a principle that if a country (he was thinking of the United States at the time) ran chronic surpluses, that would be a sign of its protectionism or refusal to support a mutually resilient economy, and its claims would begin to be extinguished, along with the bancor debts of countries whose economies prevented their ability to balance their international payments and support their currency…
    ..In a meeting to create such a bank, China would be in a similar dominant position to that which the United States enjoyed in 1944 at Bretton Woods. But its operating philosophy would be quite different. The aim would be to develop the economies of bank members, with long-term planning or trade patterns that seem most appropriate for their economies to avoid the kind of dependency relationships and privatization takeovers that have characterized IMF and World Bank policy.
    ..These development objectives would involve land reform, industrial and financial restructuring, and tax reform, as well as domestic banking and credit reforms. Discussions at the SCO meetings seem to have prepared the ground for establishing a general harmony of interests in creating reforms along these lines.”…
    ..“It is unlikely that German industrialists will act to prevent their country’s de-industrialization, given the US/NATO stranglehold on Eurozone politics and the past 75 years of political meddling by US officials. German company heads are more likely to try and survive with as much personal and corporate wealth intact as they can in the wake of Germany being turned into a Baltic-state-type economic wreckage.
    There already has been talk of shifting production – and management – to the United States, which will block Germany from obtaining energy, metals and other essential materials from any supplier not controlled by US interests and their allies…
    ..“A year or two ago it seemed that the task of designing a full-fledged alternative world currency, monetary, credit and trading system was so complex that the details hardly could be thought through. But US sanctions have proved to be the needed catalyst to make such discussions pragmatically urgent.
    The confiscation of Venezuela’s gold reserves in London and its US investments, the confiscation of $300 billion of Russia’s foreign-exchange reserves held in the United States and Europe, and its threat to do the same to China and other countries resisting US foreign policy has made de-dollarization urgent..
    ..Holding securities denominated in dollars, and even holding gold or investments in the United States and Europe, is no longer a safe option. It is clear that the world is breaking into two quite different types of economies, and that US diplomats and their European satellites are willing to tear up the existing economic order in hopes that creating a disruptive crisis will enable themselves to come out on top…
    ..It also is clear that subjugation to the IMF and its austerity plans are economic suicide…
    ..The only alternative to imposing economic austerity on themselves is to withdraw from the dollar trap in which US-sponsored “free market” economics… The break will be difficult, and US diplomacy will do everything it can to disrupt the creation of a more resilient economic order. But US policy has created a global state of dependency in which literally there is no alternative but to break away.”…
    ..The ultimate problem is that the only way Germany can restore trade with Russia is to withdraw from NATO, realizing that it is the major victim of NATO’s war. This could only succeed by spreading to Italy, and also to Greece (for not protecting it against Turkey, ever since Cyprus). That looks like a long fight.
    Maybe it’s easier just for German industry to pack up and move to Russia to help modernize its industrial production, especially BASF for chemistry, Siemens for engineering, etc.. If German companies relocate to the US to get gas, this will be perceived as a US raid on German industry, capturing its lead for the US. Even so, this won’t succeed, given America’s post-industrialized economy.
    So German industry can only move eastward if it creates its own political party as a nationalistic anti-NATO party. The EU constitution would require Germany to withdraw from the EU, which puts NATO interests first at the federal level. The next scenario is to discuss Germany’s entry into the SCO. Let’s take bets as to how long that will take.”

    Michael Hudson: A Roadmap to Escape the West’s Stranglehold

    ​ Marcus Guest, a Briton who lives and works in Moscow, draws on Sun Tzu’s classic military philosophical text, The Art Of War, to explain
    The Eastern Approach To Strategy. This is excellent work and a most digestible bite-size.
    https://marcusguest.medium.com/the-eastern-approach-to-strategy-420e1bbf7056

    #117970
    John Day
    Participant

    Meryl Nass MD points out that Kaiser Permanente just rediscovered that after 5 months the COVID-vaccinated are increasingly more likely to catch COVID than the unvaccinated. Nobody speaks of the 14-day period following vaccination, when they are much-more-likely to catch COVID than the unvaccinated. It is worse after 3 shots then after 2 shots.
    Negative vaccine efficacy keeps rearing its ugly head. Now Kaiser admits it.
    https://merylnass.substack.com/p/negative-vaccine-efficacy-keeps-rearing

    ​ ​CDC confirms USA suffered 338x increase in reports of AIDS-associated Diseases & Cancers in 2021 following COVID ‘Vaccine’ roll-out
    ​ ​Official data made available by the U.S. Government and Centers for Disease Control strongly suggests that fully vaccinated Americans may be developing Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or a similar disease that is decimating the innate immune system.
    ​ ​But they are not alone, because further data made available by the UK Government and the Government of Canada suggests the vaccinated population in both of these respective countries are also developing the debilitating condition.
    https://2ndsmartestguyintheworld.substack.com/p/cdc-confirms-usa-suffered-338x-increase

    ​ ​Hundreds of thousands of Americans sought medical care after getting a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data released on Oct. 3.
    ​ ​Some 782,900 people reported seeking medical attention, emergency room care, and/or hospitalization following COVID-19 vaccination. Another 2.5 million people reported needing to miss school, work, or other normal activities as a result of a health event after getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
    ​ ​The reports were made to the CDC’s V-safe program, a new vaccine safety monitoring system to which users can report issues through smartphones.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/hundreds-thousands-americans-sought-medical-care-after-covid-19-vaccination-cdc-data

    ​ ​U.S. Buying $290M Worth of Anti-Radiation Drugs for Use in ‘Nuclear Emergency’​ (​I​f you need this drug​,​​ y​ou got ​very bad internal radiation burns.)
    ​The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is purchasing a supply of the drug Nplate from Amgen USA Inc; Nplate is approved to treat blood cell injuries that accompany acute radiation syndrome in adult and pediatric patients (ARS).
    http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=63385

    #117971
    aspnaz
    Participant

    For four years under Trump, gas was cheap, the stock market was booming, and a trip to the grocery store didn’t require customers to take out a second mortgage.

    But we were all secretly dying of AGW, we were slowly drowning, our houses were secretly flooding, we were (used to be) entering a mini ice age …. the green shite the geese come out with is drowning us. I want Trump back, he was way better than Biden’s owners. I also hope the whole of Europe decides to burn plastic, rubber tyres, wood, bitumen, coal, petrol, old oil this winter, the reason being that if it kills nature it will be karma for nature creating all the green cretins.

    #117972
    aspnaz
    Participant

    The European Union may be left with no energy supplies after introducing gas price caps, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said as he arrived at the bloc’s summit in Prague on Friday.

    Price caps are like saying “I will only pay 10p for a Rolls Royce”. The end result is usually that you end up without a Rolls Royce. It is strange how this works, someone else sees you being a prat so they buy the goods at now heavily reduced prices, because you have disciplined yourself to suffer. So the rest of the world is buying loads of Rolls Royces at 20p each, but you are stuck with your principles. Obviously nobody, not even a soccer mum, is stupid enough to believe this will work, so this is obviously just an excuse to demolish the Europeans even further, brought to you by the WEF controlled EU.

    #117973
    zerosum
    Participant

    nightmare ….
    Detached, loosening, disconnection, unfastening, disengagement, parting

    Q: “Do you have any spare change?
    A: NO!”
    ———-
    Association/friend with “no benefit”
    ————
    Sanctions
    ———
    Isolation
    ———-
    anti-government political expression

    “seditious conspiracy”
    “domestic terrorist”
    “anti-government,”
    “extremist”
    “terrorist”
    “dangerous.”

    an opinion about the government or who knows someone with an opinion about the government an extremist in word, deed, thought or by association.
    ———-
    Check list for survival through the first couple of bottlenecks.
    Please add.

    1. A peaceful, functioning, social/economic structure that can supply affordable, critical energy, and supplies that can be traded and/or are required for survival
    ——–

    #117974
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Washington Post Lying About Kremlin ‘Turmoil’

    Bezos Lying About Kremlin ‘Turmoil’ … FIFY

    #117975
    oldandtired
    Participant

    @ AFKTT

    One more for your list!

    Comms.

    #117976
    Clueless Honky
    Participant

    Where’s Dr. D?

    #117977
    zerosum
    Participant

    It is clearly obvious that Ukraine has perpetrated and attack on Russian soil. Here the red line has been reached.

    https://www.rt.com/russia/564276-crimean-bridge-explosion-just-beginning-ukraine/
    Crimean Bridge explosion ‘just the beginning,’ Ukraine warns
    Russia’s Anti-Terrorism Committee earlier said the key infrastructure was damaged by a truck blast

    #117978
    TDub
    Participant

    Anyone have a good sense of the pressurization issue facing European natural gas? Ive read a few pieces that seem pretty straight forward, and multiple comments here. Generally, without incoming gas, that in storage cannot be displaced to points further down the pipeline. Figures suggest that Germany has say 90% of storage capacity filled, but will have significant trouble actually ‘pushing’ that gas to homes, factories etc.

    Where i get confused is why this isnt a bigger deal? Is there actually a simple, already in place technical solution (e.g. storage has floating roofs that will compress)? Seems one way or the other its a big enough story that it should either be debunked or flagged as something that is being worked on.

    #117979
    Redneck
    Participant

    Vaccination of all the three hundred thousand troops mobilised in Russia is compulsory.
    Russian government official admits they have been lied to and also admits that Russia has insufficient weapons to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure. Moral is low and Putin’s birthday present will not help.What a debacle.

    #117980
    aspnaz
    Participant

    AFKTT said

    8. Firewood within bicycle or handcart range for cooking on open fire as required.

    You obviously have never been to Africa to watch the world’s poor. Firewood? What is that? The poor do not burn firewood, they make charcoal from the firewood then burn the charcoal. Only “poor” westerners burn wood, and in huge amounts, wasting most of the energy and very rarely using it for cooking. The poor also burn anything that they can, absolutely anything including the road, so don’t worry, a pick axe to the street and in no time they will have a fire going. Firewood, so middle class, surprised you didn’t mention marshmallows.

    #117981
    aspnaz
    Participant

    V. Arnold said

    Zero mention of weapons for self defence….why is that?
    I’m a certified instructor for rifle, pistol, and shotgun…
    One or all will be very important for survival…IMHO,,,

    I think he expects AGW to have drowned us – or whatever it is going to do – before the fighting starts.

    #117982
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Clueless Honky said

    Where’s Dr. D?

    Yeah, where is that bugger?

    #117983
    aspnaz
    Participant

    TDub said

    Figures suggest that Germany has say 90% of storage capacity filled, but will have significant trouble actually ‘pushing’ that gas to homes, factories etc.

    Then it is not storage, it is the pipeline. If you cannot access the gas in storage then how is it storage? The word implies access to the goods that are stored.

    #117984

    Obvious from Twitter that the bridge wa a suicide attack. Not a word in the media

    #117986

    Driverless vehicle?

    Shane!

    #117987
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    New oil war!

    Half a century ago, the Yom Kippur war between Israel and Arab states put a new cartel of oil producers at the centre of global politics. The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, halted oil supplies to the western countries that had supported Israel. It was the first global oil shock.

    On Wednesday, the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, Saudi Arabia and its oil allies — which now include Russia in the Opec+ group — moved to upend the world’s energy order again.

    Their decision to slash 2mn barrels a day from production targets, or 2 per cent of global supply, might sound modest. But doing so while Brent crude was trading at a lofty $90 a barrel — almost twice its long-term historical price — is a threat to a global economy stalked by inflation and mounting consumer anxiety about energy prices and shortages. And it marks a new and perhaps dangerous breach between producer and consumer countries, especially between the US and Saudi Arabia. […]

    Opec moves against the US
    Saudi Arabia and Russia’s agreement to cut oil production in defiance of Washington may upend the global energy order

    https://www.ft.com/content/70853af8-b7a4-4a28-bdfe-b4f3e375a1f0

    F.S.

    #117988
    Noirette
    Participant

    Kicking in an open door..

    90% or much more of humanity has no possibility of possessing, garnering, the ressources listed by Afewk, see his check list for survival:

    https://bit.ly/3T5ji5X (link is to TAE)

    I was struck by point 17:

    Ability to survive without any electricity or petroleum products.

    A nurse in Paris, living in a small flat, dependent on central heat, public transport, a Portuguese bus driver, already on the ropes as he has 3 children, owns no land, a 20 yr-old with no family, no home, has a ‘room share’ and ‘social employment’ thing going on (Switz.), a French farmer who does own land but can’t now grow food (fertilizer, energy prices, etc).. A single mother in Maine facing bills she can’t meet, I need not go on, none of these ppl can implement the advice .. and they are not the desperate poor ‘dependents’, they live in ‘rich, developed’ countries ..

    Women and children in Yemen, Lybia, are facing another fate…

    The ‘preppie’ mind set is a hang-over from the colonialist past, the super-efficient genocide of the natives, the easy exploitation of some energies. Meanwhile, the world has changed.

    #117989
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Opinion.
    Today, we have America and its NATO allies backing the brave Ukrainians fighting to save their country from being torn to shreds by Vladimir Putin.

    And we have Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bernie Sanders, the House progressive caucus and the whole G.O.P. all working — deliberately or because they are dupes — to ensure that Putin has more oil revenue than ever to kill Ukrainians and freeze the Europeans this winter until they abandon Kyiv.

    In another dark corner, Putin and Saudi de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are also probably hoping that the soaring energy inflation unleashed since Russia’s invasion helps the Donald Trump-led Republicans to regain control of at least the House of Representatives in next month’s elections. That would be icing on the cake for both, who view Trump as a president who still loves black crude over green solar and knows how to look the other way when bad things happen to good people.

    Too cynical, you say? No, sorry, you can’t be too cynical with this cast of brutes, bandits and useful idiots. Just look at the facts. […]

    … continue at:

    Putin and M.B.S. Are Laughing at Us

    F.S.

    #117990
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    … er, link to above:

    #117991
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    … shoot! It’s in nytimes.com , you will find it there.

    #117992
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    TASS on Crimean Bridge

    MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. A truck explosion on the Crimean Bridge killed three people, the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement on Saturday.

    “According to preliminary information, the incident killed three people, presumably the passengers of a car that was driving by the truck that exploded on the bridge. The bodies of a woman and a man were recovered from the water, their identities are being established,” the statement reads.

    A truck exploded on the Crimean Bridge on Saturday morning, causing several fuel tanks of a railway train to catch fire. Two spans of the road bridge collapsed but a lane leading from Crimea to the Krasnodar Region reportedly remained intact. Traffic on the road and railway parts of the bridge was suspended. The Russian government formed a commission to look into the incident.

    … and:

    MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. Investigators have identified the owner of a truck that exploded on the Crimean Bridge on Saturday morning, the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement.

    “The Investigative Committee’s investigators identified the owner of the truck as a resident of the Krasnodar Region. Investigative activities are being carried out at his place of residence,” the statement reads.

    A truck exploded on the Crimean Bridge on Saturday morning, causing several fuel tanks of a railway train to catch fire. Two spans of the road bridge collapsed but a lane leading from Crimea to the Krasnodar Region reportedly remained intact. Traffic on the road and railway parts of the bridge was suspended. The Russian government formed a commission to look into the incident.

    #117993
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.politforums.net/ukraine/1647602849.html?ysclid=l8zrx4l9jk559451631
    Results of the referendum of March 17, 1991 in the Ukrainian SSR.
    (see map)

    The map shows the percentage of those who voted for the preservation of the USSR. Only in three regions they were in the minority – these are the regions of Galicia, which stand out sharply even among neighboring areas. Also, less than half voted in Kiev, despite the fact that the region was 67%. In other regions, the overwhelming majority of residents voted for the preservation of the USSR.

    On average, in the Ukrainian SSR, almost 80% of the inhabitants of the republic spoke in favor of preserving a single country…

    #117996
    Polemos
    Participant

    V. Arnold, you said about Afewknowthetruth’s list:
    “Zero mention of weapons for self defence….why is that?”

    I point you to #19 on his list. Can you type out what you see on your screen?

    As for me, I didn’t see toilet paper or composting toilet. Maybe the paper fits into 13’s “etc” and the composting toilet fits into #6, but greywater is not blackwater. With all the emphasis people place on getting water and food, sometimes they do forget we have to poop somewhere, sometime.

    #117999
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    As a follow up to a late yesterday comment (finally had the chance to check responses to my rambling last night). Thank you susmarie, John Day, and Doc Robinson (quite especially since it resonated the most for me) for your responses. Lot to think about and unpack. I appreciate your willingness to share your thoughts and beliefs. 🙂

    #118000
    Polemos
    Participant

    On a different note, I think I’ve determined that Monkeywerx is either not doing a good job at analysis or ignoring his own mistakes and errors or a fraud/grifter taking advantage of people. I posted earlier observations based on the links to his material also posted earlier, and the original Monkeywerx website was posted here at TAE on October 4th.

    Debt Rattle October 4 2022

    My analysis is posted here:
    https://polemos.substack.com/p/is-monkeywerx-just-bad-misleading

    Basically, the times and locations that Monkeywerx gives for the P8’s flight path do not match with the times or locations of the southern (or northern) blast. He misleads his audience by not clearly stating there is a huge gap in time in the flight path he’s showing them, because he makes it sound as though its one continuous sequence from plane refueling to bombing run to exfiltration. He uses a cut edit in his own SITREP to obscure this fact, and although he mentions on his website (not in the video!) the times for the refueling rendezvous and the time of the P8 leaving, nothing on that website indicates why there is a substantial gap. He claims the P8 came from the United States and went back there, but Reuters has now published that this is false: the flight path of the P8 leads from and goes back to Iceland, and they also explicitly discuss the time gap. Their flight path also indicates that the motion Monkey describes as a “bump” following weapons release is actually a course correction in the horizontal plane: it’s not going up and down and up again, but right and left and right again. There are other oddities occurring in the video that I discuss on that stack post.

    Here’s something I’ll say here. At this point, I find that it was Sweden who had warships out at both leak locations in the days prior to the blasts. It was Sweden (and Denmark) who recorded and reported the underwater blasts to the United Nations Security Council. Reported just recently (tinyurl.com/3raaa36h), it was Sweden who seized evidence at the crime scene (trying to find the original press release for this is tough). The Swedish Public Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist —and trying to track down information on this guy is tough— has had previous (https://tinyurl.com/yy9t7t5b) cases (https://tinyurl.com/mrywxkze) nvolving (alleged) Russian crimes. And, just to add even more noise to the circumstantial evidence, Sweden earlier in the month was demonstrating their unmanned naval vehicle trials. (https://tinyurl.com/42yf7z2h)

    See where I’m going with this? You’ve got Swedes in the area before, Swedes reporting the blasts, Swedes seizing the evidence, Swedes signing up to join NATO though not yet a part of it, Swedish prosecutor who readily accuses Russia of criminal involvement in their nation. I know: portions of the leak/blast area are in the Swedish economic zone, so it makes legal sense for them to be conducting the investigation and seizing the evidence and presenting their findings to the UNSC. And Russia is not exactly an innocent nation that never practices realpolitik.

    But what’s happening with Sweden in all this? Why is it all this talk about Nordsteam very rarely shines the light on what the Swedes are up to? Am I just being cynical?

    (Apparently, anchor tags do not work well in comments?)

    #118001
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    PS … Noirette … in my previous comment I also meant to reiterate how much I appreciate your comments. They’re intelligent, well thought out, and interesting. Thank you. 🙂

    #118002
    zerosum
    Participant

    Speculation on Crimean Bridge

    It was a failed missile strike on the oil train.

    #118003
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Regarding weapons for self defence, I believe that is the last resort before ‘run for the hills’.

    Whilst guns are easily obtainable in some parts of the world, they are very difficult to acquire in other parts of the world. And there is the matter of ammunition. Few people can manufacture ammunition these days.

    Self defence does not necessarily imply guns. There are numerous substances that cause immediate irritation to skin, and near-instant blindness if squirted into an invader’s eyes. Indigenous people had considerable success with bows and arrows, spears, blow darts etc.

    As for Africa, well I suspect that most of us on TAE are not in Africa and do not have access to elephant dung etc. Irrelevant, as is most of the commentary posted by that person.

    As for people living in places hostile to life, I believe it is something they have chosen, and they must therefore pay the price of not getting out when the going was good, before those places became hostile to life. I was not born where I live now. I chose to get here, at considerable loss.

    Sure, there are the mentally retarded and physically disabled who cannot relocate..

    But since when was life ever fair or just? Certainly not in any Anglo-speaking place since the Normans invaded England (and then much of the rest of the world). Certainly not in African societies that practiced slavery or cutting off female genitalia (some still do, I believe). Certainly not in the China that bound the feet of girls to hobble them. Certainly not the China that starved a large portion of its population in order to export food, to pay for imports of machinery. Certainly not in nation that currently declares itself to be ‘free and democratic’.

    The NZ local elections have just been completed. Around 30% participation by ‘voters’.

    More of the same bullshit and lies at all levels of governance until the system collapses, I’m afraid.

    #118004
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    “Declaration Of War Without Rules”: Russian Officials Fume Over Crimea Bridge Blast As Ukraine Celebrates
    Tyler Durden’s Photo
    BY TYLER DURDEN
    SUNDAY, OCT 09, 2022 – 07:35 AM
    Update(1435ET): Russia’s state Investigative Committee has put out a statement saying at least three civilians died as a result of the attack on the Crimean Bridge, which was likely a fertilizer-laden truck bombing. “According to preliminary data, three people died as a result of the incident. They were presumably passengers of a car, which was near the exploded track. As of now, the bodies of a man and a women have been recovered from the water, their identities are being established,” the committee said. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at the same time blasted what she called the “criminal logic” of some NATO officials who are positively cheering the attack.

    Ukrainian government sources have owned up to the attack, but this claim of responsibility stopped short of being made publicly or officially: “A Ukrainian government official told The Washington Post that the country’s special services were behind the attack, though Kyiv stopped short of saying it was responsible — even as top officials taunted Moscow.” As for the taunting and trolling, the official Twitter account for the government of Ukraine also tweeted out:

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/large-explosion-destroys-part-key-bridge-linking-russia-crimea-zelensky-aide-says

    #118005
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Detailed analysis here

    #118006
    kultsommer
    Participant

    @ Polemos
    My humble observation: some hardly pay attention to what RIM has to offer and others fail to thoroughly read the comments by visitors of the site. If you are expecting that “polemic” (sic) will be answered or debated you’ll be waiting for a long time.
    The list may present a value to some (and more power to them – I am not jealous) but it is not viable for many for myriad of obvious reasons.

    #118007
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    AFKTT: “But since when was life ever fair or just?”

    Touche.

    Never.

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