Nov 012022
 
 November 1, 2022  Posted by at 8:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Vilhelm Hammershoi Woman Seen from the Back 1888

 

Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation (IC)
“The Bird is Free.” Will Elon Musk Become Grand Duke of Mars? (Ugo Bardi)
How Elon Musk Should Shape Twitter — Sans the Sink (Turley)
‘Inflation Came From Nowhere’ – Lagarde (RT)
Putin Clarifies Position On Grain Deal (RT)
Russia Tells UN It Will Inspect Black Sea Ships (RT)
Israeli Finance Minister Added To Kiev’s ‘Kill List’ (RT)
Much Of Kiev Without Power & Water After New Russian Airstrikes (ZH)
From The Surreal To The Real To The Meta-Real (Batiushka)
Drone Attack On Sevastopol (MoA)
Comeback Kid Lula In The Eye Of A Volcano (Escobar)
Why The US-Saudi Relationship Is Withering (RT)
They Rule Over Dysfunctional Ruin, but They Rule (Crooke)
US Economic Decline And Global Instability Part 3 (Phillyguy)
Russia’s New Regions On Collision Course With Ukraine 100 Years Ago (Nepogodin)

 

 

“The less men think, the more they talk.”
~ Montesquieu

 

 

 

 

Nord Stream 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ethical Skeptic 7:1

 

 

The Swiss National Bank just reported an enormous $142.6 BILLION dollar loss in the first 9 months of 2022, which is by far the largest loss in the bank’s 115 year history.

 

 

 

 

This is scary but not surprising. And it’s not about disinformation, but about anything that questions “official” info. “..the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine.”

It’s just partisan politics, flavored with a whiff of what both parties agree on, i.e. war. And it just so happens that the people who bring you this are the exact same lot that gave you Russia Russia, which was the biggest crop of disinformation ever.

Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation (IC)

Behind closed doors, and through pressure on private platforms, the U.S. government has used its power to try to shape online discourse. According to meeting minutes and other records appended to a lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican who is also running for Senate, discussions have ranged from the scale and scope of government intervention in online discourse to the mechanics of streamlining takedown requests for false or intentionally misleading information. Though DHS shuttered its controversial Disinformation Governance Board, a strategic document reveals the underlying work is ongoing. DHS plans to target inaccurate information on “the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine.”

Facebook created a special portal for DHS and government partners to report disinformation directly. “Platforms have got to get comfortable with gov’t. It’s really interesting how hesitant they remain,” Microsoft executive Matt Masterson, a former DHS official, texted Jen Easterly, a DHS director, in February. In a March meeting, Laura Dehmlow, an FBI official, warned that the threat of subversive information on social media could undermine support for the U.S. government. Dehmlow, according to notes of the discussion attended by senior executives from Twitter and JPMorgan Chase, stressed that “we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable.” “We do not coordinate with other entities when making content moderation decisions, and we independently evaluate content in line with the Twitter Rules,” a spokesperson for Twitter wrote in a statement to The Intercept.

There is also a formalized process for government officials to directly flag content on Facebook or Instagram and request that it be throttled or suppressed through a special Facebook portal that requires a government or law enforcement email to use. At the time of writing, the “content request system” at facebook.com/xtakedowns/login is still live. [..] According to a draft copy of DHS’s Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, DHS’s capstone report outlining the department’s strategy and priorities in the coming years, the department plans to target “inaccurate information” on a wide range of topics, including “the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine.” [..] The inclusion of the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is particularly noteworthy, given that House Republicans, should they take the majority in the midterms, have vowed to investigate. “This makes Benghazi look like a much smaller issue,” said Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., a member of the Armed Services Committee, adding that finding answers “will be a top priority.”

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And in view of DHS et al trying to control information flow, Ugo Bardi’s point is salient: Elon Musk understands that better than all the rest put together.

“The Bird is Free.” Will Elon Musk Become Grand Duke of Mars? (Ugo Bardi)

Some people absolutely love censorship. But many (perhaps most) users of social media didn’t like to be watched from over their shoulders by those overzealous nannies who pretended to know better than them what is true and what is not. That generated criticism, and some attempts to rein in the censors. But, so far, we only saw censorship increasing its reach and becoming more pervasive.Except for the news of the day: the bird is free! Elon Musk bought Twitter and promises to eliminate censorship.

What’s happening? There are several possible interpretations, but at least something is clear: those who rule us are not a monolithic entity, as the Communist Party was in the Soviet Union. There are several would-be world rulers who are vying for power behind the scene. Musk may actually be smarter than most of them and able to understand that you gain nothing by silencing those who disagree with you. Suppose he wants to become the next US president, or maybe the Grand Duke of Mars, then he has to think like the Grand Duke of Tuscany did. He needs to know what people think because he can rule only if people agree that he is the ruler. Ruling by force and oppression is inefficient and, often, the ruler ends up hanged by the feet. So, Musk may well understand that he needs to leave some space for people to express themselves. The bird may not be completely free, but it has to be able to fly.

We seem to be in a transition moment (we always are). The Internet is under pressure by the attempt of controlling it by the powers that be, turning it into a tool for a totalitarian government (in China, the government may have succeeded at that). But, at the same time, some members of the elites are realizing that the Internet is a much better tool if used according to its characteristic of a two-way communication system. The Internet may allow us to generate a new governance system that might be more effective and just than the old totalitarian systems. It might be part of a “new Renaissance” that could take some aspects similar to the way Cosimo the 1st ruled in Tuscany during the 16th century. Maybe. But, as always, the future will surprise us.

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But still, Musk would have to deflect the entire kitchen sink that will be thrown at him.

How Elon Musk Should Shape Twitter — Sans the Sink (Turley)

News reports last week seemed to start out like a bar joke: The richest man in the world walks in carrying a sink . . . Of course, it was a joke — a colossal joke. The question is whom the joke is on. For Elon Musk, the punch line was appropriately delivered on Twitter, the company he’s taking over Friday at an inflated price. Calling himself “Chief Twit,” Musk posted the video with the caption “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!” For the Musk-phobic, it was as funny as a drive-by shooting. CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem denounced Musk’s taunt as “fundamentally cruel.” After all, when Musk was first reported to be buying the company, employees were so traumatized that leadership had to offer emotional support just to “get through the week.”

The reason is less the fear of Musk bringing bathroom fixtures than free speech into San Francisco headquarters. Twitter has created one of the largest censorship systems in world history — a system widely condemned for a pattern of political bias and viewpoint intolerance. Outgoing CEO Parag Agrawal is unabashedly hostile to traditional views of free speech. Soon after he took over, he pledged to regulate content and said the company would “focus less on thinking about free speech” because “speech is easy on the Internet. Most people can speak. Where our role is particularly emphasized is who can be heard.” For employees who are true believers of this censorship scheme, the joke no doubt feels like it’s on them. The censorship skill set may not be quite as much in demand in a Musk-owned firm.

While Facebook, Google and other companies are still committed to corporate censorship, Musk has pledged to restore free speech principles to Twitter. But the joke may still be on Musk if he yields to Twitter’s corporate culture or the mainstream media’s unrelenting pressure. Democratic leaders like Hillary Clinton have turned from private censorship to good old-fashioned state censorship. Clinton has called on foreign governments to step in and pass laws that would force Twitter to continue to censor opposing views. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently repeated this call for global censorship at the United Nations to the applause of diplomats and media alike. Musk may have to yield to such domestic laws, but he can use his platform to inform citizens of those countries they are being censored and controlled in what they are allowed to read.

The most important thing in America is for Musk to hit the ground running at Twitter. First, he needs to order the preservation of all records. There are well-supported examples of biased censorship, including the burying of The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story before the election. There are also allegations of back-channel communications from the government to manage a type of censorship-by-surrogate system to evade the First Amendment. Second, Musk should focus on the First Amendment as a model for Twitter’s content-management policy. It has become a mantra on the left that free-speech objections to social-media censorship are meritless because the First Amendment does not apply to private corporations.

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Lagarde should be fired for 1) making this statement, and 2) meaning it.

‘Inflation Came From Nowhere’ – Lagarde (RT)

The European Central Bank (ECB) has doubled its key interest rate to the highest level in more than a decade in an attempt to combat soaring inflation, ECB President Christine Lagarde has explained. In an interview with Irish national broadcaster RTE on Friday, Lagarde said: “We do it because we are fighting inflation” that had “pretty much come about from nowhere.” She pointed to a speedier-than-expected economic rebound from the pandemic as a cause alongside “the energy crisis caused by Mr. Putin who has decided in an unjustifiable way to invade another country.” The ECB chief added: “That’s what he [Putin] is trying to do, cause chaos and destroy as much of Europe as he can. This energy crisis is causing massive inflation which we have to defeat.”

She went on to say that “Anybody who is behaving in that way has to be driven by evil forces,” and that the “sick”Russian president is a “terrifying person.” Discussing her previous meetings with the Russian leader, Lagarde described him as an “unbelievably super-briefed person” with “flashing, freezing eyes.” After expressing her view, Lagarde however stressed that she’s “just a central banker,” and “shouldn’t be saying all these things.” On Thursday, the ECB announced another interest rate hike, taking Eurozone rates to the highest level since 2009. According to Lagarde, they are aimed at bringing inflation back to “reasonable levels so the cost of living isn’t as high as it is for people.” In September, inflation across the euro area hit 10%.

The EU has blamed Russia for the spiraling energy crisis across the continent. However, many economists point to the bloc’s fiscal policy responses as a major reason behind the crisis. Moscow has also criticized the “illogical and often absurd” moves by Western nations, saying that the sanctions imposed by the US, EU, and other countries on Russia have backfired and resulted in a sweeping energy crisis as well as record inflation across the West.

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This will cost Erdogan a lot of points. He negotiated the grain corridor, meant for Africa nations, but grabbed 34% for himself AND allowed Kiev to use the corridor to hide drones.

Putin Clarifies Position On Grain Deal (RT)

The grain deal between Moscow and Kiev has not met its stated goals, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday. Most of the Ukrainian agricultural products exported under the agreement have not reached the poorer nations they were supposedly intended for and have instead ended up in Europe and Türkiye, he argued. Putin said Moscow was suspending its participation in the deal, but not fully withdrawing from it. The deal was promoted to “secure the interests of the poorer nations,” he said, adding that, according to Russian intelligence, the real structure of Ukraine’s grain exports is vastly different. “We agreed to that [grain deal] precisely in the interests of the poorer nations,”the Russian president said.

“On the whole, it looks like 34% of [the Ukrainian] grain gets to Türkiye, 35% or even more is taken by the EU nations and only between three and four … or five percent, according to our Agriculture Ministry … goes to the poorer nations,” Putin said. His words came as the Russian military closed the Black Sea grain corridor used to export Ukrainian grain under the agreement reached in Istanbul in July. The agreement – mediated by the UN and Türkiye – was initially hailed as critical for easing the global food crisis and helping the world’s poorest nations avoid starvation. Russia has since repeatedly pointed out that the grain, in fact, goes to other destinations. Moscow decided to halt its participation in the deal following a massive drone attack on its naval base in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol last week.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the naval drones used in the attack navigated through the grain corridor’s security zone to reach their targets. One of them might have even been launched from a civilian vessel chartered to transport Ukrainian grain shipments, it added. Earlier on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was ready to compensate the missing Ukrainian grain export volumes from its own stocks. At the same time, he said that Moscow could not yet name the conditions that would make it resume its participation in the deal. In the wake of Moscow’s decision to suspend its participation in the deal, the UN has insisted that “food must flow”regardless of circumstances. Civilian vessels “can never be a military target or held hostage,” the UN coordinator for the Black Sea grain initiative, Amir Abdulla, said. Russia has previously said that it could not guarantee the security of the grain corridor if Kiev used it for military purposes.

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Inevitable. If Turkey doesn’t do it, Russia must.

Russia Tells UN It Will Inspect Black Sea Ships (RT)

Ukraine “grossly violated” the Istanbul agreement on grain exports via the Black Sea and forced Moscow to suspend it indefinitely, Russia’s envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council on Monday. The Russian Navy will inspect all cargo ships bound for Ukraine, even those unilaterally cleared by the Turkish-based coordination center, he added. “This subversive action of Kiev grossly violates the Istanbul agreements and, in fact, puts an end to their humanitarian dimension. It is now obvious to everyone that the Black Sea humanitarian corridor is being used by the Ukrainian side for military sabotage purposes,” Nebenzia said, referring to Saturday’s drone attack on Sevastopol. Russia “cannot guarantee the safety of civilian ships participating in the Black Sea initiative,” Nebenzia added, as “we do not know what other terrorist attacks Kiev is preparing with the support of its Western sponsors.”

On Sunday, after Moscow announced the suspension of the arrangement, the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul said it had greenlit 16 ships to navigate the corridor on Monday and “informed” Russia about the decision. According to maritime traffic data, at least two ships left the Black Sea port of Odessa in the morning, reporting Istanbul as their destination. “Decisions and measures taken without our participation are not binding on us,”Nebenzia told the UN. Moscow “cannot allow ships to pass without our inspection and will be forced to take independent measures” to inspect ships authorized by the JCC without Russian approval. Meanwhile, the UN coordinator for the Black Sea grain initiative, Amir Abdulla, insisted that “the food must flow.”

The UN and Türkiye mediated a deal in July under which Ukrainian grain could be exported via the Black Sea, while Western obstacles to the exportation of Russian grain and fertilizer would be removed. The US and its allies insist they had never sanctioned grain exports – but their sanctions on Russian ships and insurance made them impossible in practice. Moscow has criticized the West for not keeping its side of the deal and pointed out that the bulk of Ukrainian exports had gone to the EU and not the African nations most affected by food insecurity. Russia halted its compliance with the pact on Saturday, after Kiev launched a major drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet and civilian vessels involved in securing safe passage for agricultural cargo from Ukrainian ports. On Sunday, after studying the wreckage of the unmanned combat vehicles, the Russian Defense Ministry said that those behind the attack made active use of the UN-brokered grain corridor.

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Just making friends.

Israeli Finance Minister Added To Kiev’s ‘Kill List’ (RT)

Israeli finance minister, Avigdor Lieberman has been added to the database of the “enemies of Ukraine” on the controversial Mirotvorets website on Sunday. The authors of the site, which is believed to have links to the Ukrainian security services, described Lieberman as “Russia’s agent of influence,” who had been manipulating publicly significant information in favor of Moscow. They also blamed him for taking part in acts of “humanitarian aggression” against Ukraine. Among the actions that led to Lieberman being placed on the list, were his refusal to finance an Israeli field hospital in Ukraine in March and his neutral stance on who is to blame for the massacre in the Kiev suburb of Bucha in April. The website also shared a link to an article, claiming that he had ties with Russian gas giant Gazprom.

Ukrainian authorities have frequently expressed their disappointment with the level of support they’ve been getting from Israel during the conflict with Russia. The country has only provided Kiev with humanitarian aid and life-saving defense equipment, but not weapons and munitions. Israel also refrained from joining international sanctions on Moscow. Last week, Liberman said that Israeli assistance to Ukraine since the outbreak of the fighting between Russia and Ukraine in late February amounted to some $40 million. Liberman has been finance minister since 2021. He’s a veteran politician, who has occupied various high positions in the Israeli government over the years, including foreign minister, defense minister, and deputy PM. The 64-year-old is also the head of Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home), which holds seven seats in the country’s parliament, the Knesset.

Liberman was born in Chisinau, Moldova when the republic was part of the Soviet Union and immigrated to Israel in 1978. The Mirotvorets website, translated as ‘peacemaker’, was launched in 2014, positioning itself as an independent database run by anonymous moderators to help Ukrainian authorities and “special services” apprehend pro-Russian terrorists, separatists, and war criminals, among others. However, some have branded the database a ‘kill list,’ which is backed by the government, after several individuals, including writer Oles Buzina, politician Oleg Kalashnikov, and Russian journalist Darya Dugina were assassinated shortly after their profiles appeared on the website. The most recent high-profile additions to Mirotvorets included Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters. There were claims that the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, was put on the database in mid-October, but swiftly removed from it. The alleged addition happened after Musk offered a peace plan, which envisaged Kiev giving up territories to Moscow.

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Slow grind.

Much Of Kiev Without Power & Water After New Russian Airstrikes (ZH)

Much of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev is without electricity or water, after the latest round of major Russian airstrikes on Monday. The Russian military announced ‘successful’ strikes on multiple of the country’s vital infrastructure facilities. “The Russian Armed Forces continued to launch strikes with high-precision long-range air and sea-based weapons against Ukrainian military and energy facilities,” the Defense Ministry said. “The goals of the strikes were successful. All assigned objects were hit.” Meanwhile, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal confirmed direct hits on 18 sites – most of which were connected to the nation’s energy supply. These ramped up attacks have created a growing sense of panic with temperatures plunging and winter approaching.

“Missiles and drones hit 10 regions, where 18 sites were damaged, most of them energy-related,” Shmyhal stated on Telegram. “Hundreds of settlements in seven regions of Ukraine were cut off.” Facilities in Cherkasy and Kirovohrad also came under attack. Ukraine’s military said it intercepted projectiles over the Lviv region, which spared this western part of the country from damage. The Washington Post noted there are “power outages continuing in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions,” and others. The Post listed some of the below regions impacted by large-scale power outages and water supply disruptions:

• Kyiv region: Russian strikes damaged buildings, and rescuers are searching for victims, the regional police said. Attacks left 80 percent of the capital without water and are likely to cause sustained power outages, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
• Kharkiv: Two strikes hit critical infrastructure facilities in the eastern city, causing problems with the water supply and affecting the public transit network, the mayor said.
• Zaporizhzhia region: An infrastructure facility was struck by rockets, the local governor said, prompting warnings from officials in the southern region that energy supplies there could also be affected.
• Cherkasy region: Some of the region lost power after air attacks on infrastructure facilities, the military administrator said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba condemned the attacks as more war crimes: “Another batch of Russian missiles hits Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. Instead of fighting on the battlefield, Russia fights civilians,” he tweeted. Additionally Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko announced on Telegram that these fresh strikes left 80% of residents in the capital without water and some 350,000 homes with no electricity. “Just in case, we ask you to stock up on water from the nearest pumps and points of sale,” he advised. The mayor’s office vowed that water supply to the effected parts of the city would be restored in three to four hours, with emergency utility crews working urgently on it.

Rescue teams in the capital are reportedly searching for possible casualties under the rubble of buildings destroyed or damaged from the new salvo of Russian strikes; however, at this point casualty numbers are unclear. The US ambassador said she and her staff had to take shelter in this latest attack on the capital: Already before Monday’s attacks, Ukrainian officials estimated that 40% of the nation’s electrical power systems had been severely damaged, and urged households to limit their usage, especially with non-essential large appliances. Ukrainians are further being warned to prepare for long-term power outages as a frigid winter is just around the corner.

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“The mirage is over. This Hell-begotten war must end.”

From The Surreal To The Real To The Meta-Real (Batiushka)

[..] the surreal continued when, on 23 October, with the Russian Defence Minister’s phone calls to his US, UK, French and Turkish counterparts about the Russian discovery of a Kiev/MI6 plot to use a ‘dirty’ bomb and blame it on Russia. Having outed the plot, Sergei Shoigu had alerted the US Establishment to the extremism of the now desperate Kiev elite (and their British MI6 operatives). The US put the Kiev crazies in their place, since, after all, the US are the string-pullers and puppets are not allowed to do anything without their express permission. The US duly stated that it has seen no evidence that Russia intends to use nuclear weaponry and President Putin stated that Russia has no plans to use nuclear weapons. The panic and hysteria of the Western media and of others was unfounded; though the mass media did not report the US admission. Panic and hysteria sell.

[..] Let us now come back to reality. The 87,5% of the world which either supports the Russian campaign to liberate the Ukraine, or else remains neutral towards it, shows the increasing isolation of the Nazi West. And it is now also crystal clear that ‘the West’ is in fact only the USA, just as NATO is only the USA, the Wicked Witch of the West. The rest is just camouflage, a mirage. In Italy, Germany, France, Moldova, the Czech Lands, Romania (the former Defence Minister), Bulgaria, Serbia, even in the UK, dissident voices are protesting. For God’s sake, negotiate with Russia! The Ukraine is their business, not ours, they’re all basically Russkies anyhow. We want gas and food! Who cares about the Nazi puppets in Kiev?

More and more all European governments, apart only from the Hungarian, are being seen as what they are – simply US puppet elites, who do not represent their peoples. EU or Non-EU Europe, there is no difference, apart from Hungary, which alone has, in every sense, a popular government. If Nobel Prizes were given non-politically, surely Victor Orban should have won one of them by now. Here the hypochondriac French are going crazy because China is sanctioning them by depriving them of paracetamol. Perhaps as many as 20% of Western Europeans have now realised that the whole Ukraine affair is a put-up job, arranged by the US, with its British poodle yapping at its feet. Same as Iraq, same as Afghanistan. Same old, same old.

The poodle is more papist than the Pope. Over the last two months it is notable that most Ukrainian flags have been taken down in Europe. It is rare to see one now. The working class were never interested, they always knew it was just another operation by the arms industry, but now even the conformist middle-class is taking down its Ukrainian flags. The mirage is over. This Hell-begotten war must end.

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UK was directly involved.

Drone Attack On Sevastopol (MoA)

This morning at 4:20 local time the Russian fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol was attacked by nine unmanned aerial vehicles and seven autonomous maritime drones. Earlier a maritime drone that had run aground in Crimea and had been found and pictured. During today’s attack a large U.S. drone had flown circles south of Crimea. It likely relayed data from and to the drones. The maritime drones are British and Russia alleges that British specialists had trained the Ukrainian navy in using them. It also says that British soldiers were involved in the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline. The Ukrainians published two videos shot by the maritime drones while attacking. One of the video shows extensive gun fire impacts near the drone from a Russian helicopter that is attacking it.

The Russians say that all the aerial drones and 4 of 7 maritime drones were defeated before they could caused damage. They also say that one mine seeking ship was damaged in the harbor. It is possible that the damage is greater than Russia admits. As a consequence of the attack Russia declared that the deal which allowed for grain exports from Odessa has been suspended. That deal had already been in danger as the ‘west’ had not fulfilled its part of the deal which would have allowed for the export for Russian fertilizer to third parties. I find it likely that Russia will take additional measures to punish the Ukrainian navy for the brazen attack. Additional attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure is another possibility.

Meanwhile all recent attempts by the Ukrainian army to penetrate the Russian held lines have failed. It is notable that these are now much smaller in size with just a battalion or in some cases just two companies in the lead. It is now definitely mud season in Ukraine during which it is impossible to cross most farmland even on feet. This will hinder the attacking forces on both sides until winter sets in.

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Lula has strong ties to China and has been a driving force behind BRICS.

“..the next BRICS summit in South Africa, which will consolidate BRICS+, as an array of nations are itching to join, from Argentina and Saudi Arabia to Iran and Turkey.”

Comeback Kid Lula In The Eye Of A Volcano (Escobar)

Lula is one of the founders of the BRICS in 2006, which evolved out of the Russia-China dialogue. He’s immensely respected by the leaders of the Russia-China strategic partnership, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. He has promised to serve only one term, or up to the end of 2026. But that’s exactly the key stretch in the eye of the volcano, straddling the decade Putin described in his Valdai speech as the most dangerous and important since World War II. The drive towards a multipolar world, institutionally represented by a congregation of bodies from BRICS+ to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to the Eurasia Economic Union, will profit immensely to have Lula on board as arguably the natural leader of the Global South – with a track record to match.

Of course, his immediate foreign policy focus will be South America: he already announced that will be the destination of his first presidential visit, most probably Argentina, which is bound to join BRICS+. Then he will visit Washington. He has to. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Informed opinion across the Global South is very much aware that it’s under Obama-Biden that the whole, complex operation to topple Dilma and expel Lula from politics was orchestrated. Brazil will be a lame duck at the upcoming G20 in Bali in mid-November but in 2023 Lula will be back in business side-by-side with Putin and Xi. And that also applies to the next BRICS summit in South Africa, which will consolidate BRICS+, as an array of nations are itching to join, from Argentina and Saudi Arabia to Iran and Turkey.

And then there’s the Brazil-China nexus. Brasilia has been Beijing’s key trade partner in Latin America since 2009, absorbing roughly half of China’s investment in the region (and the most of any Latin American investment destination in 2021) and firmly placed as the fifth largest exporter of crude for the Chinese market, second for iron and first for soybeans. The precedents tell the story. Right from the start, in 2003, Lula bet on a strategic partnership with China. He considered his first trip to Beijing in 2004 as his top foreign policy priority. The goodwill in Beijing is unshakeable: Lula is considered an old friend by China – and that political capital will open virtually every red door.

In practice, that will mean Lula investing his considerable global clout in strengthening BRICS+ (he already stated BRICS will be at the center of his foreign policy) and the inner workings of South-South geopolitical and geo-economic cooperation. That may even include Lula formally signing up Brazil as a partner of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in a way that won’t antagonize the US. Lula, after all, is a master of this craft.

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Saudi Arabia cannot pick the US over OPEC+ and BRICS. It’s not in their interest.

Why The US-Saudi Relationship Is Withering (RT)

As the Gulf States are ultimately concerned with preserving their own value systems and independence, they have increasingly diversified their relationships in recent years with tilts towards Russia and China. Beijing, with its enormous demand for energy, has also become a lucrative alternative to the West. Similarly, stable ties with Moscow also allow for cooperation in the common interests of oil-exporting countries, which has also had the effect of reducing Western influence and dominance over those countries. On recognizing this, why would Saudi Arabia and the states of OPEC voluntarily undermine their own oil revenue merely to suit the geopolitical interests of the United States?

The world is in the middle of an energy price crisis exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine. Saudi Arabia sees that the US and some of its allies want to purposefully try to lower the price of oil in a bid to try and hurt Russia. However, that is not how the market works and, by extension, such a move is also an assault on Saudi and OPEC interests. While the kingdom is officially neutral in regards to Russia-Ukraine, it also recognizes that the success of an energy price cap would embolden the West to push harder against Russia, which also serves to undermine the kingdom’s geopolitical independence.

In other words, if the US succeeded in dividing OPEC by unilaterally demanding a price cap on oil products, it would defeat the very purpose of the organization itself to protect the respective economic interests of those countries. The United States has been a useful partner to Saudi Arabia, but it is not a friend. It is not part of a ‘bloc’ or ideological coalition, as let’s say the UK is, but merely has seen the West as the most useful and lucrative partner to fulfil its own political needs. As those needs change, Saudi Arabia’s preferences are also subject to change. Washington is therefore learning that the kingdom is not a client state to be called on when needed, and thus this very close and often contradictory partnership is starting to strain.

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Nero comes to mind.

They Rule Over Dysfunctional Ruin, but They Rule (Crooke)

Since 2008, we have lived in a western world shaped by the ‘permanent state’ or by our managerial technocrats – label to choice. This ‘creative class’ (as they like to see themselves) is particularly defined by its intermediary position in relation to the wealth-controlling oligarchic cabal as ultimate big money overlords on one hand, and the dullard ‘Middle Class’ below them – at whom they sneer and deride. This intermediary class didn’t set out to dominate politics (they say); It just happened. Initially, the aim was to foster progressive values. But instead, these professional technocrats, who both had accreted considerable wealth and were tightly congregated into cliques in America’s large metro areas, came to dominate left-wing parties around the world that formerly were vehicles for the working class.

Those who coveted membership in this new ‘aristocracy’ cultivated their image as one of cosmopolitan, fast-moving money, glamour, fashion, and popular culture – multiculturalism suited them to perfection. Painting themselves as the political conscience of the whole of society (if not the world), the reality was that their Zeitgeist reflected primarily the whims, prejudices and increasingly psychopathies of one segment of liberal society. Into this milieu arrived two defining events: In 2008, Ben Bernanke, Chair of the Federal Reserve, gathered together in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, a room-full of the wealthiest oligarchs, ‘locking them in’ until they found the solution to the unfolding systemic bank failure.

The oligarchs did not find a solution but were released from their lock-up anyway. They opted instead, to throw money at structural problems, compounded by egregious errors of judgement about risk. And to finance the resulting massive losses – which were over $10 trillion in the U.S. alone – the world’s central banks began printing money – since when they have never stopped! Thus begun the era in the West where deep problems are not solved, but simply have freshly-printed money thrown at them. This methodology was whole-heartedly adopted by the EU also, where it was called Merkelism (after the former German Chancellor). Underlying structural contradictions were simply left to accumulate; kicked down the road.

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“To provide some perspective, from 2020- Q2 2022, US government debt increased over $7 trillion.”

US Economic Decline And Global Instability Part 3 (Phillyguy)

The US emerged from WWII as the world’s leading power. Since that time, US global supremacy has rested on unrivaled military and economic power, control of world’s energy reserves (primarily in the Middle East), and maintaining the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. This relationship began to transform in the mid-1970s, as US corporate profits began to stagnate/decline, the proximate cause being the 1973-1975 recession [3], a consequence of increased competition from rebuilt economies in Europe- primarily Germany (Marshall Plan) [4], Japan/South Korea (Korean war) and more recently China. The US ruling elite responded to this economic challenge by pursing neoliberal economic policies (reviewed in [1]).

This included: 1) multiple tax cuts for the wealthy, 2) financial deregulation- repeal of Glass–Steagall legislation (1933 Banking Act) by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA) in 1999 and Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) of 2000, that exempted over-the-counter derivatives trades between financial firms from regulation. It should be noted that both of these bills were passed during the waning years of the Clinton Administration and may have been a quid pro quo to spare President Clinton an impeachment conviction over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky [5]. 3) attacks on labor and the poor and job outsourcing to Mexico, China and other low-wage platforms, facilitated by passage of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 [6].

The effect of these policies is vividly observed in the manufacturing sector. In 1960 the US produced 50% of global manufacturing output, accounting for 25% of GDP. Today, the US produces circa 17% of global manufacturing output, accounting for 11% of GDP [7]. 4) Spending vast amounts of taxpayer money (> $20 trillion) on post-911 militarization. The neoliberal economic policies outlined above precipitated the Global Financial Crisis 2007-2008 (GFC), the largest financial crash since the Great Depression [8] [9] [10]. None of the structural economic problems giving rise to the GFC (listed above) have been resolved; instead, the FED has used the US Treasury as a taxpayer-funded ‘piggy bank’ (the FED cannot print money) to pump over $40 trillion (this figure may be as high as $50 trillion) to support insolvent banks, inflate bond and equity markets and over-priced real estate, creating the ‘everything bubble’ [11].

Thus, since 2009, the US ‘economy’ has been sustained by continuous money printing to prop up financial markets and the Pentagon. Not surprisingly, this has been accompanied by an explosion of debt and rising inflation, further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russian energy, which has led to demands for even more money to support financial markets and the Pentagon. To provide some perspective, from 2020- Q2 2022, US government debt increased over $7 trillion [12].

Read more …

Must read history lesson.

Russia’s New Regions On Collision Course With Ukraine 100 Years Ago (Nepogodin)

When four formerly Ukrainian regions joined Russia nearly a month ago, the collective West tried to present the occurrence as treacherous, unprecedented, and lacking local support. However, the reunification was preceded by a century-long struggle by a large amount of the regions’ inhabitants for the right to be considered Russians. In February 2015, the deputies of the parliament of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) signed a memorandum declaring the continuity of their statehood from the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic, one of the numerous entities that emerged during the Russian Civil War. This quasi-state, which was created by the Bolsheviks in 1918 and aspired to become part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), included not only Donbass, but also the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions.


History may zigzag, but time puts everything in its place. Today, Russian Donbass is restoring lost ties with Russia and establishing new ones,” wrote Denis Pushilin, the head of the DPR, shortly before the start of Russia’s military offensive. In this article, RT explores the brief history of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic and explains why the residents of Donbass wanted to live as part of Russia even 100 years ago. Back in 1999, the famous Russian political geographer and theorist Vladimir Kagansky wrote a large article entitled ‘Ukraine: Geography and Fate of the Country’, in which he made a forecast: Ukraine will inevitably transform, and this transformation mainly depends on Russia. He concluded that its self-determination would inevitably be anti-Russian, citing the country’s “stretchable borders” as one of the main reasons. At a minimum, this would encompass just the right bank of the Dnieper, or even Galicia alone.

At a maximum, the borders would stretch to the southern Russian cities of Voronezh and Stavropol. “The USSR and the CIS are a semi-empire of republics around Russia, and Ukraine is the main link in this necklace, a geopolitical pendant. Ukraine divides the space of the former USSR into separate, geographically separated blocks, and connects three blocks (Belarus and the Baltic States – Moldova – the Caucasus). Ukraine is the only alternative to Russia as the center of the current CIS and the entire post-Soviet space. It is the only way to potentially bypass Russia – the main anti-Russian bastion, and Russia’s main partner in the arrangement of this space,” wrote Kagansky.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

Inflation As A Prelude To War

 

 

Rogan The Shining
https://twitter.com/i/status/1587125259492331520

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle November 1 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 73 total)
  • Author
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  • #119816

    Vilhelm Hammershoi Woman Seen from the Back 1888   • Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation (IC) • “The Bird is Free.” Wil
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle November 1 2022]

    #119818
    Germ
    Participant

    Pandemic Amnesty?

    Fuck that – NEVER forget, NEVER forgive.

    https://twitter.com/just_mindy/status/1587148452055629826

    #119819
    Germ
    Participant
    #119820
    Red
    Participant

    One of the most prestigious medical journals dealing with heart disease, the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), has published two new articles this month dealing with how to detect and treat COVID-19 vaccine induced heart disease (myocarditis, pericarditis, and myopericarditis). They are:

    Vaccine‐Triggered Acute Autoimmune Myocarditis: Defining, Detecting, and Managing an Apparently Novel Condition
    Myocarditis After COVID‐19 Vaccination in Pediatrics: A Proposed Pathway for Triage and Treatment
    Medical journals are generally not written for the public, but for doctors and other medical professionals, so you will not hear about this in the corporate news which is heavily sponsored by the drug companies who produce the COVID vaccines, and would not want the general public to have this information.

    The JAHA published studies admit to a difficult situation in treating what they refer to as a “novel” cardiac disease that is caused by COVID-19 vaccines without fueling “vaccine hesitancy” which would reduce the number of people getting COVID-19 vaccines, which of course they are obligated to believe are necessary to fight the COVID-19 “virus” disease.

    To admit otherwise, would be to admit these vaccines are a total scam and unnecessarily killing and maiming people, a criminal offense.

    https://healthimpactnews.com/2022/medical-system-struggles-with-how-to-treat-heart-disease-caused-by-covid-vaccines/

    #119821
    Red
    Participant

    COMMENT: Marty: I received an email from Barack Obama today (subject line: “My promise to you”) letting me know that I have an opportunity to support the Democrats in the upcoming election. It also said, “You are receiving this email because you supported the DNC in the past.” I’m Canadian. I’ve always lived in Canada. And I have certainly never supported the DNC. Curious marketing strategy.

    https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/the-polls-are-crazy/

    #119822
    Red
    Participant

    The Violated Charter Rights of Canadians Have Now Become “Moot”
    The Federal Court’s refusal to address the elephant in the room is thoughtfully described in an article by Alexander Brighton entitled “Justice Delayed, Justice Denied.” Brighton asserts, “The entire handling of these challenges [concerning government travel prohibitions for the “unvaccinated”] is a grave miscarriage of justice, a part of a deeply concerning trend occurring in Canada, both generally, and in particular concerning any attempt to hold the provincial or federal governments accountable for their pandemic policies.”

    The author goes on to make a striking comparison. He writes, “Imagine the court ruling on the government’s use of residential schools as ‘moot.’ Stop living in the past! The schools are closed! It was a different government.”

    Brighton sums up his argument, writing, “In short, to Justice Gagne, the most unprecedented government restrictions of civil liberties since the FLQ crisis in the 1970s are moot now. Harms from government policies are hypothetical or abstract.”

    “Judicial Negligence” and Constitutional Rights: COVID Restrictions Imposed by Trudeau Government, Violating the Rights of Canadians

    #119823
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    My response to Dr. Emily Oster:

    #119824
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    With whom does Emily Oster want an amnesty? Moms, so they will return to the democratic fold

    Emily is asking us to forgive a mistake. There was no mistake. There was a political calculation that harmed us, but even more, that harmed our children. The harm was considered acceptable because those who undertook it, took the votes of women for granted. They assumed they could lie and manipulate us into believing these harms were necessary, or barring that, unintentional. If we, as women, want our votes to be courted in the future by either party, we must vote to punish the past three years treachery.

    #119825
    Red
    Participant

    NEVER forget, NEVER forgive
    I don’t. I will be cordial in public settings with those who have transgressed against myself or ones I love but will not forgive. I will not associate with those transgressors in social settings and I won’t assist them in times of discomfort. Petty? perhaps, however they have proven themselves untrustworthy and as such cannot be trusted going forward. I will not harm them intentionally, so from my POV they are on their own. There are many that don’t see eye to eye with myself but are still trustworthy and on that basis we get along just fine both professionally and socially, it’s called integrity, some have it most do not it would seem.

    #119826
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Amnesty my arse. Forfeit everything you have, go live in a dessert on your own and after 40 years we will consider it. If you can’t do that, you are not really sorry.

    #119827
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Amnesty my arse. They are trying to hide guilt, not let it go. The way to let it go is simply to bend the knee be humble and say sorry. It is easy, but will they do it? Fuck no. The sense of entitlement runs deep in these ones.
    I have sympathisers around me and for them I feel the sympathy, because they didn’t have the guts or felt the risk was worth it or were too tired, got caught too early or too dumb or too trusting – fair enough but I’m not looking for a sorry from them.
    I am looking for a sorry from the smug, persecuting arseholes who partnered with a malicious government to slander me, ignore me, be judgey as fuck and deny me work, access to my child at school and sports events, argue with me call me ‘right wing’ and generally cast nasturtiums my way. To them I am waiting. Waiting with my unopened tubes of horse dewormer. I got receipts. I got emails. They know who they are.

    I get a sorry – I am good.

    I’m not holding a grudge – ultimately they came from fear and I got love (I hope, enough?)

    But. Until I get a sorry they are outside my trust horizon and I am not supporting their businesses or getting too chummy.

    I guess I should be thankful to this group who have really gotten the ball moving quickly on the self-sufficiency movement here. Well faster than peak oil or growth limits. They made us look into the face of who to trust.
    And now we know.
    People who think for themselves. Who are not afraid to be wrong or entertain another view point. People who trust their gut and do not defer authority to someone outside themselves. People capable of knowing their small part matters and know common sense needs exercise lest it grow flabby and weak. People who don’t attempt to signal virtue but have a go at really being honest about where they fit in the world and the reality of being alive – it involves risk.
    These are the people I partner with. I child mind their kids, buy their stuff, work for them and support them. Society as a whole has a new Jew around these parts and they go by the name UNVACCINATED bitches.

    Sorry rant over. Felt good though I know it was not Jesus guiding my finger taps.

    #119828
    aspnaz
    Participant

    We need to forgive one another

    You tried to kill us, we refused to be killed. What are you going to forgive us for? You deserve extreme punishment for what you did. We did nothing wrong, so there is no “one another”.

    The Atlantic – which should be renamed “the pool of sick” – was as pro vax as they come, so pro vax that they still can’t help but accuse us of doing something wrong: we didn’t take the vax and they are going to forgive us? What a bunch of dumb asses. You try to get us killed and now you want to forgive us? I will go along with this but only if you prove you are sorry by giving us reparations from all that money you made trying to kill us, but only if you get the Fauci cash, the Pfizer cash, the Moderna cash, the WHO cash, the Gates cash, start spreading it around and show us how sorry you are. Thought not.

    I now feel dirty having talked about the sewer people.

    #119830
    aspnaz
    Participant

    oxymoron said

    Felt good though I know it was not Jesus guiding my finger taps.

    No worries, I doubt non-black Jesus thinks you are in need of the forgiveness being offered.

    #119831
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Thanks Mr Roboto great substack piece Emily and the Atlantic are gunna get hammered by this piece.

    #119832
    Dimitri
    Participant

    NEVER FORGET.

    I will cordially tell them to fuck off.

    #119833
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “The less men think, the more they talk.” – Twitter™

    You found the Pandemic Amnesty article. Wow. So…if everybody did right, why would they need amnesty? And WHO did the wrong? Me? When I said we needed cost-benefit and to support human rights? Uh, no. YOU. So the translation is: “I know we all did heinous wrong that made everyone so incredibly mad they may actually hurt us for, so we’re asking you not to. …For no legitimate reason, we’re not conceding anything, in fact, I know I deserve it, just, I don’t like pain.”

    Uh, no. Where was MY amnesty? Where was the Union’s amnesty, the “Essential worker” amnesty as you ALREADY got amnesty staying home in your pajamas ordering DoorDash? And you weren’t in the dark. I knew, and I live under a bridge all day. We all knew by I dunno, Sept ‘20. Prob CDC offical by then. You didn’t WANT to know. You WANTED to hurt people and took extraordinary measures to NOT know, by firing every doctor, nurse, or scientist who was doing, you know: SCIENCE, presenting evidence and demanding counterargument.

    So Never forgive them: Fight for the Right to be with the people you love.

    “Now a 7:1 appetite in the virus for the recently vaccinated.”

    I need amnesty as I’m going to actively ignore this too.

    SNB must be related to Credit Suisse? Note: because the market was so distorted out of ‘08, Switzerland was the top owner of all American stocks (indexes). They are our BoJ, buying 100% of our market and owning 100% of our Nikkei. Why is complicated; I don’t entirely blame them, but they should have tried harder.

    ” Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation (IC)”

    Huge story? Or we all knew? When everything obvious is denied it’s hard to tell anymore. The only story I want to hear is the arrests of everyone for egregious, genocidal levels of human rights abuses, and their corresponding civil suits pushing all their wealthy Yale alumni back to poverty. The government fig doesn’t protect your patently illegal actions. No? Nothing? Wake when something happens then.

    “ “The Bird is Free.” Will Elon Musk Become Grand Duke of Mars? (Ugo Bardi)”

    There are a thousand things going on here. “Mass Purge begins at Twitter” Really? You mean The Purge of Nobody, as they were all bots and never real? And it’s only because Politicians are sooooooo stupid, childlike, mentally-retarded social climbers that they look to Twitter as in any way a reflection of what is “happening” or “popular”. With a 70:1 Blue:Red ratio, while the population is 50:50 or probably tipping back “conservative” slightly. A “conservative” that has a pro gay marriage President, for example, and supports Muslims and Blacks owning guns and running their own businesses and churches. Real backward stuff like that.

    Speaking of Gay rights, so it has to be the Conservatives who defend gay hookers against police railroading by asking obvious questions and demanding actual investigations and evidence over at Paul Pelosi’s house? I mean, this isn’t that hard, people. But: go ahead, kill and jail more gay people I guess. Show us who you are. Or is two guys in their underwear 17 miles from home at 2:30am something that happens all the time at your house too?

    Back to Elon: there are 1,000 things happening. How about this: Twitter is dead, it’s impossible for it to make money, duh. Elon bought it for $40B, the idiot, so we sold it to him, haha. …Elon then uses Twitter as the world’s biggest platform for crypto-transmission, using “tweets” of 16-digit hashes, and on his favorite Dogecoin. $40B becomes $100B in 5 years as the company actually DOES something now. …And has a little free chat on the side.

    What? No? C’mon, he can make the $40B on pre-buying Dogecoin alone.

    Oh wait: we’re not done. You want your OTHER $40B back? Musk now has…and is releasing…internal emails and chats that the entire board was lying. To the Judge. That means everything they said and did…under law…was open provable fraud. And Elon now OWNS the proof. So should be pretty easy to sue them back for their personal fortunes, AFTER clawing back $30B of the $40B paid. Wouldn’t it?

    How could he possibly lose such a suit? He’s the exclusive owner of 100% of all the fraud evidence. And you wonder why Vijaya was crying when she found out. …She was going to jail.

    “the energy crisis caused by Mr. Putin”

    Same as Covid is not the Emperor and cannot authorize and enforce lockdowns, Putin did not cause the European economic and energy sanctions. YOU did. And you can reverse them today, although the cost gets higher all the time.

    ““Anybody who is behaving in that way has to be driven by evil forces,”

    I agree. It is evil to shut off all energy to a continent, then lie and gaslight about it. It’s the thinking of a narcissistic sociopath.

    Carter said the same thing, Inflation was “Strange and mysterious forces moving and strange and mysterious ways”. I’ve looked for that quote many times, but can’t find a link. Pre-internet, so the world sprang into being in 1999, the same way history started in 2022 in Ukraine, or US politics started in 2016 here.

    “Putin Clarifies Position on Grain Deal (RT)”

    Rumor is, this small thing really matters. UK using this, and Russia having to shut it off, will indeed mean unnecessary starvation, even in Europe. Remains to be seen, but What do you think Russia should do? Let them, let Europe not be under pressure, and be blown up for it too? So this one British act may have more effect on the deaths of a MILLION families than all their hot air combined. Maybe you won’t care until it’s YOUR father whose chair is empty?

    “Israeli Finance Minister Added to Kiev’s ‘Kill List’ (RT)”

    Makin’ friends worldwide. I guess Ukraine runs the world, even more than Israel, according to this behavior. Why not? If they’re the money laundering center of the world then they have blackmail on everyone in the world.

    “ Much of Kiev without Power & Water after New Russian Airstrikes (ZH)”

    They say they’re terrible at this, but are they? They wouldn’t have had support of Russia last year, AND such a bombing would have mobilized NATO. Now by starting slow and letting the truth come out, they have now the understanding of Russians of what’s at stake and why the war is necessary, while because it took more than 30 seconds, the West is bored, annoyed, and peevish, disliking realizing war costs more than pressing Up (2), Down (2), X (2), Triangle (2), now has zero appetite in the people to enlist and fight for years.

    Therefore, at THIS point, taking out electric is a go, that will no longer annoy the people of the West, and so they get to prosecute that aspect of the war for free. Not true back in June. And they are delivering the war to the Party Boyz clubbin’ it in Kiev. That was weird, but yeah, that happened in Hemingway’s Paris in WWI too.

    “‘the West’ is in fact only the USA, just as NATO is only the USA,”

    Not really, as the U.S. — as in the people — are openly stated to be the top enemy of the U.S. … government. Also all the MAGA are too. So that’s 50% of the People, Pentagon, and 20% of the government? These guys do geopolitics. So it’s a Cartel, a minority club INSIDE CIA, MI6, Inside the Pentagon, a few corporations, all of whom can be identified by their alliance with the WEF. And banking.

    Therefore NATO is NOT the USA, the USA is being used up for heavy muscle by the WEF and Europe’s financial mobility. Killin’ all those freedom-loving, gun-shooting deplorables in West Virginia and Idaho, all in service of their oppressors, trying to change their kid’s gender and erase the family line back home – what could be better or funnier? And so Europe skates out without an Army, and no cost so they get free health care. I see what’s going on here.

    “The maritime drones are British and Russia alleges that British specialists had trained the Ukrainian navy in using them.”

    Again WHY is the 200-year enemy of Britain, Russia? WTF. They’re not anywhere near each other and have nothing to do with each other. Russia was an ALLY. And for the Yanks, an ally in 1770 and 1860 too.

    Why the US-Saudi Relationship Is Withering (RT)”

    Again, why did it ever exist? We’ve been against towel-headed camel jockies since 1970, and supported Israel against them for decades. Happily made movies where they are the designated enemy for 40 years. They signed up to this fake WWF role? Then we stole their bonds (in the collapse of the Americas), stole their gold in Switzerland, and tried to assassinate and install their leader. After setting them up for a nation-perishing war against Iran. WHY did they ever exist with us? We’ve never done anything but accuse them of terror, 911, any ol thing we could think of.

    …Something to do with how they could buy a nuclear aircraft carrier per MONTH with the money we sent them since 1975?

    “The Red Wave that’s coming is going to be like the elevator doors opening up in The Shining.”

    That’s easy: Pennsylvania already said they will never finish counting. It’s now not election DAY, not election WEEK or election MONTH (people are already voting). It’s election YEAR. So we still won’t know who won in Nov 2023. Because as Joe showed, when my guy is in, elections are fair, and when your guy gets in, RussiaRussiaRussia.

    #119834
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Overpopulation, Issac Asimov and Scientist Jay Forrester, 1975:

    “Professor Forrester thinks, if I understood him correctly, that we need a future of localism, of self-sufficiency.

    My view is that, if things continue as they are and population continues to rise and the food supply continues to become less and less adequate, then we will have some sort of catastrophe, with or without a nuclear war. There will be a rapid decrease in the population due to a rise in the death rate. There will be a rapid fall-off in standard of living. We will have consumed the oil and easy coal. Our rather complex economic and social structure will have collapsed. In the ruins those who survive will have to set up relatively small units which are of necessity self-sufficient. So what Professor Forrester calls the solution, I call the catastrophe. Perhaps that is one way of getting rid of the catastrophe – calling it something else.” (Murphy, 1975, pp. 54–55)
    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sdr.1720

    It’s linearism vs cycles. And linear thinking is always used by (western) science and always wrong.

    And like the boy who cried wolf, thanks to Science being wrong for 50 years, never being right about a single prediction, now that they cry “Methane” I don’t believe them either. Guess that’s what happens when you’re the world’s biggest liar and won’t come clean even on known, longstanding lies and frauds like Statins and Cholesterol. Or the EROEI of windmills. Sucks to be you. Come clean about 10,000 lies told so far, clean up thousands of journals filled with fabricated data and AI word-salad, and we’ll get back to taking about methane.

    #119835
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Lula is one of the founders of the BRICS in 2006, which evolved out of the Russia-China dialogue. He’s immensely respected by the leaders of the Russia-China strategic partnership, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

    I do not read Escobar’s stuff anymore, it reminds me of the Guardian, just plain nonsense and lies. I read this much of this article and wonder about the election fixing, the unpopularity of Lula, Escobar has nothing to say about that? Lula is a crook, always has been, Bolsonaro is probably the same, but at least he is popular. I wonder what will happen, will the military take out Lula for his obvious foreign support and fixing of the election? I wonder who is supporting him: China/Russia or CIA?

    #119836
    Dora
    Participant
    #119838
    zerosum
    Participant

    TAE is informing you. TAE is not alone in warning you.

    https://theintercept.com/2022/10/31/social-media-disinformation-dhs/

    Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation
    Ken Klippenstein, Lee Fang
    Do you care? You are being manipulated.
    Excerpt Key words/phrases ….

    “unconstitutional censorship.”
    threat of subversive information
    content moderation
    flag content
    throttled or suppressed
    content request system
    target “inaccurate information”
    obfuscation
    removing, labeling, or soft-blocking speech,
    private sector and government to discuss how firms would handle misinformation
    monitor social media discussions
    “routing disinformation concerns”
    coordinate
    removal of reported misinformation
    to prebunk/debunk
    tools to foil disinformation

    the agency needed to take steps to halt the “spread of false and misleading information,” with a focus on information that undermines “key democratic institutions, such as the courts, or by other sectors such as the financial system, or public health measures.”

    evaluate the “efficacy of interventions,” specifically with research looking at how alleged disinformation can be countered and how quickly messages spread.

    “clearing house for information to avoid the appearance of government propaganda.”

    Politico media critic Jack Shafer. “Our government produces lies and disinformation at industrial scale and always has. It overclassifies vital information to block its own citizens from becoming any the wiser. It pays thousands of press aides to play hide the salami with facts.”

    calls for DHS to “leverage advanced data analytics technology and hire and train skilled specialists to better understand how threat actors use online platforms to introduce and spread toxic narratives intended to inspire or incite violence, as well as work with NGOs and other parts of civil society to build resilience to the impacts of false information.”

    “threat actors”

    the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force this year includes 80 individuals focused on curbing “subversive data utilized to drive a wedge between the populace and the government.”

    “The Department will spearhead initiatives to raise awareness of disinformation campaigns targeting communities in the United States, providing citizens the tools necessary to identify and halt the spread of information operations intended to promote radicalization to violent extremism or mobilization to violence,” DHS Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan said in a September 2019 strategic framework.

    domestic actors viewed as potential sources of radicalization and upheaval.

    National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism. The strategy identified a “broader priority: enhancing faith in government and addressing the extreme polarization, fueled by a crisis of disinformation and misinformation often channeled through social media platforms, which can tear Americans apart and lead some to violence.”

    the FBI has spent millions of dollars on social media tracking software like Babel X and Dataminr.

    Another FBI official, a joint terrorism task force officer, described to The Intercept being reassigned this year from the bureau’s international terrorism division, where they had primarily worked on cases involving Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group, to the domestic terrorism division to investigate Americans, including anti-government individuals such as racially motivated violent extremists, sovereign citizens, militias, and anarchists. They work on an undercover basis online to penetrate social networking chat rooms, online forums, and blogs to detect, enter, dismantle, and disrupt existing and emerging terrorist organizations via online forums, chat rooms, bulletin boards, blogs, websites, and social networking, said the FBI official, who did not have permission to speak on the record.

    What Hunter Biden scammed out of Ukraine was petty cash.
    How Canada does it. Look at the how the scam is done by the professionals.

    November 1, 2022 at 2:11 am reply #119798
    ————–
    • How Elon Musk Should Shape Twitter — Sans the Sink (Turley)
    There are well-supported examples of biased censorship, including the burying of The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story before the election. There are also allegations of back-channel communications from the government to manage a type of censorship-by-surrogate system to evade the First Amendment. Second, Musk should focus on the First Amendment as a model for Twitter’s content-management policy. It has become a mantra on the left that free-speech objections to social-media censorship are meritless because the First Amendment does not apply to private corporations.

    ———–
    Lagarde should be fired for 1) making this statement, and 2) meaning it.

    • ‘Inflation Came From Nowhere’ – Lagarde (RT)

    ————–

    #119840
    Germ
    Participant

    Denninger on ‘Amnesty’:

    “Oh no you don’t, bitch.”

    https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=247330

    #119841
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    When Hell freezes over.

    #119844
    Michael Reid
    Participant


    Gideon Joubert discusses the global situation, collapsing economy, and continued erosion of freedom. From a safety and security perspective, things have eroded extensively in South Africa. Corrupt politicians and mafias are exacerbating the situation. The ANC may not win re-election for the first time since 1994, which would be a wonderful thing. Police services are completely broken, South Africa is a state run by gangsters, both official and unofficial. The electricity crisis in South Africa has been a long time coming. The energy crisis is causing food price inflation. The country is on the verge of an infrastructure collapse. He also talks about being off grid, relocation, building community, and financial and physical security.

    Gideon Joubert: South African Collapse, Why to be Optimistic, & Prepping

    #119845
    John Day
    Participant

    Oxymoron “ranted” (but it is right-on, and only a beginning): {It’s not accepting my post}

    Jesus was largely crucified for turning over the tables of the money-changers at the temple and chasing them away with a whip, Mate!
    Alastair Crooke uses the term “weaponized government failure”.

    They Rule Over Dysfunctional Ruin, but They Rule

    The people who think and solve problems independently now need to be the beach-ball-held-under-water. This will be long and arduous, but some of us are already in that groove from what we have been put through. It is a time to be constructive, not vindictive, but it is no time to be deluded about what we now know. That would be a fundamental error.

    #119846
    John Day
    Participant

    @RED: I ot that same dubious “promise from Obama” in my inbox. I have to unsubscribe to a LOT that I never signed-u-for these days, from both parties.

    #119847
    Kassandra
    Participant

    I just want deflationista to come back and ask for forgiveness, lol.

    What was that anyway? I mean, it HAD to be someone paid, right? How did this old commenter just come back out from nowhere just to spew the anti-ivermectin/pro-vaxx crap relentlessly? It was weird watching it happen in real time, obvious propaganda?

    I don’t think I’ll ever forgive, my life was turned upsidown and my nervous system will never be the same again, it’s truly been damaged from the stress. I’ll never forget the lockdowns, the riots, laying in bed night after night listening to fireworks and gunshots for hours. Going out to the market at 8am so I could get food and supplies as quickly as possible just to not have to deal with the roaming hoards of mask wearing zombies.

    We had one friend that would visit us wearing a mask and standing 15 feet away down at the end of our driveway. It was crazy.

    When we finally escaped the total madness to a red state, my FIL would call us regularly begging us to get vaccinated, scared we would die (because of the insane national coverage of this state).

    One of my employees told me in a 1:1 meeting that unvaxxinated people should be left to die.

    I’ll never forget what happened, I have to keep talking about it because it seems so unreal. But I have to remember what they are capable of, it’s the only way to keep worse from happening. Thank you so much for all being here these past nearly 3 years! Can you believe it? 3 years!

    #119848
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Accountability NOT Amnesty!

    The “ask” is more proof of their all-consuming guilt. It is coming out, thanks to Emily for opening Pandora’s Box. Let’s use this opportunity to reset with the demand for expansive INQUIRY.

    From Mister Roboto’s excellent link. You can substitute the words ‘People with Integrity’ for conservatives and insert the word shot, mandate, Peace, for abortion:

    “The narrative that conservatives seek to limit access to abortion in order to keep women down is a just that—a story. In order to prop it up, fetuses had to be literally dehumanized, and the narrative bolstered with overtly anti-natal supporting philosophies, philosophies which, in their anti-natalism rob life of most of its meaning for most people. For women, this anti-natalism is expressly anti-mother, hence, anti-feminine, transforming motherhood—one of the few truly transcendent human experiences—into a dupe’s prison. ”

    THE dehumanizing of everything. Just like the financialization of everything – they are one and the same! Dr D’s Anti-Life perspective in lights, for all to examine.

    LOVE the masked cat who returns for another day.

    “Never surrender the right to be with people you love.”

    LOVE to All on this day of electric potentiality.

    #119849
    John Day
    Participant

    It might matter that the “forgive and forget” meme arises during early voting in US mid-term elections…

    Kassandra said: “One of my employees told me in a 1:1 meeting that unvaxxinated people should be left to die.”

    Jesus said: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”

    I wish Kassandra’s injected former employee well in the coming days and years.

    #119850
    hugho
    Participant

    Ahhhh…..Such is life in before the apocalypse. It is obvious that we are living in a time of systemic collapse. Posters out there: Robert Harris(“Fatherland”) wrote a recent book called “The Second Sleep ” of a world after The SHTF which features an England in medieval garb governed by the Church and superstition. Consider reading it and for gosh sakes, Take a break from the current globalized insanity and curl up in front of your electric fire if it is still working.

    #119852
    DarkMatter
    Participant

    It’s true that I made your life hell
    And locked you for years in a cell
    I tortured your wife
    And ruined your life
    We both made mistakes, now we’re swell

    #119854

    Well, now I see I follow poetry on a similar topic! (Nice limerick, DM, btw)

    Guilt and fear, fear and guilt:
    This is how our hells are built.

    I can’t think of a better way for tyrants to root out their enemies than on a platform where people freely express their opinions of the tyrants.

    There’ll come a time when all you’ve writ
    Of this, or that, or War-
    Will find you startled at the sound
    Of pounding on your door.

    Most of those who want to rule prefer Hell.

    #119855
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    No “amnesty.”
    Those who were wrong should start by APOLOGIZING.
    Those who were merely “following” the crowd need not be condemned, and friendship may be resumed.
    But.
    I will always remember WHO fell for it, and I will never trust their judgment nor discernment.

    #119857
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Will never forgive.

    Here in NY, we still have this sh*t going on in the medical industry. I was kept from my daughter the last two days of her life. Why? In the ICU, on life support, only ONE person could visit per day for three hours. I was with her at the ER on Friday night. Her fiancee visited on Saturday. Her father visited on Sunday.

    Monday “would have been” my day to visit, but she crashed Sunday night. We withdrew life support on Monday since there was no chance of survival. , Btw, once life support is withdrawn, FIVE (lucky us) people can visit at a time and stay for as long as they want.

    Unfortunately, she lasted about 6 minutes. So much for that little tidbit they tossed us.

    Oh, just to also note, the five people initially selected to be on the “comfort care only” list could NOT be switched out if she lasted for three months. Wish I was exaggerating. I’m not. This was in May 2022.

    Forgive? Never.

    #119858
    Rover
    Participant

    Well said, Red & Everyone Else!! I have yet to finish scrolling down the Commentariat list of authors yet but thanks to all🙏🙏🙏…Left/Right/Ambidextrous Human Beings All!!!🙂🙏✌️

    #119860
    WES
    Participant

    How do you forgive those people who deliberately set out to quickly destroy your relationships with family and friends built over a lifetime?

    This not something that can ever be forgiven.

    #119861
    That Bloke
    Participant
    #119862
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    ‘Again WHY is the 200-year enemy of Britain, Russia? WTF. They’re not anywhere near each other and have nothing to do with each other.’

    Maybe because Russia was a powerful nation that threatened the City of London corporation -the real British Empire.

    Just North of Auckland city, large gun emplacements were constructed in the latter portion of the nineteenth century because ‘the Russians were coming’. That was after the Crimea War, Britian and France’s failed attempt to strangle Russia

    I think I better understand why the British and Americans (well, their governments) were keen to morph the Asians of the Japanese islands into pseudo-Europeans: to unleash them on Russia and China.

    But then the pseudo-Europeans of the Japanese islands got too good at industrialism and decided they wanted their own empire instead of being ‘Ukrainians’ of the turn of the [19th-20th] century. Had to be punished and brought back into line. Well and truly punished and thoroughly brought back into line, so they could be used for the next round or assault on Russia and China.

    #119863
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    so they could be used for the next round of assault on Russia and China.

    #119864
    John Day
    Participant

    God Bless You, Upstate NYer.
    I am deeply sorry to hear of how your daughter and family were treated.

    #119865
    John Day
    Participant

    The video implying algorithmic management of the electronic vote-counting in Brazil is food for thought.
    Whos machines, I wonder…

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