Nov 202022
 
 November 20, 2022  Posted by at 9:30 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Paul Gauguin Van Gogh painting sunflowers 1888

 

Musk Reinstates Trump’s Twitter Account After Millions Vote In Poll (JTN)
War On Everything (El Gato Malo)
Europe Warns Musk He Must Hire Hundreds Of Moderators (ZH)
German Public TV Compares Elon Musk to Goebbels (Kogon)
CBS News Suspends All Twitter Activity (NYP)
France Should Stop Backing Zelensky – Ex-Presidential Candidate (RT)
West Is ‘Pushing’ Kiev Toward Talks – Medvedev (RT)
Germany Warns Against Escalation Between Russia and NATO (RT)
Goodbye G20, hello BRICS+ (Escobar)
Ukraine Could Seize Crimea Before Year Ends – MOD (RT)
‘Harsh Winter’ Ahead For Ukraine – Lloyd Austin (RT)
Outcome of Ukraine Conflict Will Help Define 21st Century – Lloyd Austin (RT)
EU Leaders Accuse US Natural Gas Producers Of Profiteering (IA)
‘Laziness Epidemic’ Grips France – Study (RT)

 

 

 

 

Judge Nap- Macgregor MUST watch

 

 


Schwarzenegger

 

 

Old video

 

 

 

 

Tucker FTX

 

 

“If you don’t believe how powerful American propaganda is, they made Fauci and Zelensky the heroes..”

 

 

 

 

Musk Reinstates Trump’s Twitter Account After Millions Vote In Poll (JTN)

New Twitter owner Elon Musk declared Saturday night that former President Trump’s account will be reinstated. Musk made the decision after polling Twitter users Friday. More than 15 million people responded, with nearly 52% supporting the return of the 45th president to the social platform, “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted at about 8 p.m. ET Saturday. The former president’s account was suspended after the Jan.6, 2021, Capitol riot. Since then, Trump has launched his own social platform called Truth Social that has attracted millions of new users. Both Trump and Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes have said the former president plans to stay on his own platform. Trump reiterated that position on Saturday, even as he encouraged followers to vote in Musk’s poll. “Vote now with positivity, but don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere. Truth Social is special!,” he wrote.

Read more …

One of the last things Michael Moore said that made sense, was “You can’t declare war on a noun”. El Gato takes it from there.

War On Everything (El Gato Malo)

We live in the age of the war machine. The purpose of the war machine is not to produce victory. The purpose of the war machine is to produce war. War unending. War on everything. Permission to think the unthinkable and excuse to do that which is inexcusable. It is the triumph of the terrible and the tyrannical. The war on covid, poverty, injustice, drugs, terrorism: It’s all the same. War is the worst of humanity. It is the end of cooperation, the end of rationality, the abrogation of ethics. War is permission to “do what it takes to win” This cannot be the way. War is the end of good choices and the embrace of conflict, the end of citizens and the pursuit of subjugation. It is the end of humanity and the beginning of amoral destruction of the enemy. Perfect for politicians. Anathema to the free breath of we the people.

This is jingo as justification. It’s the supplanting of rights by righteousness. And this war machine will roll right over you and if it does its job well you will never even guess at the real reasons why. The facts and faces may change, but the war will not. It will take from you those most fundamental rights and choices and replace them with the fist, with violence, with taking. The war on drugs takes the free choice of free people and replaces it with 27 kinds of new statist intrusion breaking down doors with unaccountable no knock warrants and systems of international collaboration giving rise to vast police and surveillance states. Has it stopped drugs or even made headway? Nope. Does it have any ethical basis in a world where our own intelligence agencies traffic in the very narcotics our police profess to suppress? Nope.

It just oppresses you and takes the rights of peaceful people and shifts to unsafe and violent black markets that which was once free. It just tightens the net around you and the endless failure to win is right there in the design. The goal is not to stop drugs. The goal is to rule and to profit. The war on poverty is just the same. It seeks to take by force from some and give to others. Has it alleviated poverty? No. By most credible accounts, it has made it FAR worse among those it purports to help from the african american community in the US that was literally devastated by the so called “great society” programs to the african african community in africa where endless, meddling aid has made dependencies of countries while preventing real domestic industry and self sufficiency from emerging for who can open and support a store or a farm when trucks of free rice arrive daily and aid money is laundered into vast programs of profiteering by folks like the gates foundation? It has enabled 700 kinds of grift and grasping rapacity.

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Some two-bit little man trying to make himself look powerful.

Europe Warns Musk He Must Hire Hundreds Of Moderators (ZH)

At a time when Musk is cutting hundreds if not thousands of workers on a weekly basis, early on Friday Europe delivered some unexpected news to the world’s richest man: according to Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, Musk will have to increase the number of moderators in Europe, a continent which long ago gave up all pretense of having free speech. “He is in the process of reducing a certain number of moderators, but he will have to increase them in Europe,” Breton told Franceinfo in an interview, Bloomberg reported. Breton added that Musk “will have to open his algorithms. We will have control, we will have access, people will no longer be able to say rubbish.”

By “rubbish” he meant anything that Europe’s unelected technocrats disagree with, which these days is anything not endorsed by the World Economic Forum. Breton earlier warned that Twitter would have to “fly by our rules,” shortly after Musk closed his $44 billion takeover last month. The EU’s Digital Services Act gives governments power to enforce rules governing how tech companies moderate content and to decide when they must take down illegal content. The DSA specifically will also force companies to moderate content in the languages they operate in, according to Bloomberg.

If Musk doesn’t comply, Twitter will face fines of as much as 6% of annual sales and could even be banned. Breton said he had proposed establishing a “working relationship” with Musk to discuss Europe’s expectations of the social media platform. “He knows perfectly well what the conditions are for Twitter to continue operating in Europe,” Breton said, and he is right: Europe is one so-called “Democracy” where nobody even pretends there is freedom of speech even as it bashes authoritarianism in places like China and Russia; and sadly it’s a preview of what is coming to the US.

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It’s a German specialty after all. Meanwhile, that country is falling apart fast.

German Public TV Compares Elon Musk to Goebbels (Kogon)

After Germany’s “first” public television network, ARD, compared Elon Musk reducing Twitter censorship to “letting rats out of their holes,” Germany’s “second” public television network, ZDF, has now compared Musk to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels! (The network’s name Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen literally means “Second German Television.”) Thus, last Friday, ZDF’s would-be comedy program, the “Heute Show,” posted the below tweet and photoshop.. The Tweet reads: “Thanks to Elon Musk, you’re allowed to say anything again on Twitter! Total freedom of speech! #heuteshow.” The caption, whose color scheme and font invoke Nazi-era propaganda, reads “Do you want total tweet?”

It is an allusion to Goebbels’s 1943 speech at the Berlin Sportspalast, in which the Nazi Minister of Propaganda famously shouted, “Do you want total war?” – in response to which audience members leapt to their feet shouting “Yes!” and raising their arms in the Hitler-salute. The background image appears to show a Nazi Party rally with the swastikas replaced by the Twitter bird logo. Two smaller swastikas are still visible in the lower left-hand corner of the full-size image. Leaving aside the extreme mental contortionism required to associate freedom of speech with Nazi Germany, if ever there was a don’t-throw-stones-in-glass-houses moment, this was it. For, as so happens, during the Second World War, the founding director of ZDF, Karl Holzamer, himself served in one of the propaganda units that none other than Goebbels’s Ministry of Propaganda embedded with the different divisions of the Germany military.


Holzamer served in a propaganda unit of the Luftwaffe or German air force. As noted in a 2012 article titled “Goebbels’s Soldiers” in the German daily Die Frankfurter Rundschau, Holzamer was embedded with the Luftwaffe during its April 1941 bombing of Belgrade and was “the first” to report on the German subjugation of the Yugoslav capital. The online Lexikon der Wehrmacht, which also notes Holzamer’s service in the propaganda troops, cites Goebbels himself, who explained that “the Wehrmacht’s propaganda troops ensure the coordination between propaganda warfare and armed warfare in the theater of operations.”

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Musk inch perfect on Twiter: “Who made that decision?” “Oh, never mind, who cares?”

CBS News Suspends All Twitter Activity (NYP)

Fearful of the “uncertainty” surrounding Elon Musk’s management of Twitter, CBS News announced that it would be suspending its usage of the social media site. CBS News is one of first major media entities to flee Twitter in the wake of threats from many Musk critics to leave the platform once the billionaire Tesla CEO took over the company. The major news network confirmed the move during Friday’s episode of “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell.” Coverage began with the network reporting on the mass resignations of employees offended by Musk’s “ultimatum” from earlier this week. In his quest to streamline the company, the world’s richest man emailed all employees asking them to commit to an “extremely hardcore” workload or leave the company.

The “ultimatum,” as many disgruntled folks called it, prompted backlash from onlookers who trashed the company under Musk, some calling it a “hellscape.” The ensuing chaos from Musk’s email, as well as the general vitriol generated by him taking over the reins of company, did not sit well with CBS News. During its segment, titled “Twitter Turmoil,” CBS News national correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti reported in a dire tone, “Tonight, as questions mount over Twitter’s future, Elon Musk offers little reassurance he has a permanent plan, tweeting, ‘What should Twitter do next?’” The story featured a quote from a disgruntled former engineer who was laid off, who claimed that the culture of Twitter under Musk was “definitely a culture of fear and uncertainty, of anxiety.”

Apparently, that anxiety made quite an impression on CBS News. In the middle of the segment, Vigliotti reported the outlet’s decision to pause its usage of Twitter. He reported, “In light of the uncertainty around Twitter, and out of an abundance of caution, CBS News is pausing its activity on the social media site as it continues to monitor the platform.”

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“Let’s stop supporting this dangerous man. [We should] urgently make up a peace plan,” he added.”

France Should Stop Backing Zelensky – Ex-Presidential Candidate (RT)

France should stop supporting Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky after he almost incited a global conflict by alleging that a recent deadly blast in Poland, a NATO member, was caused by a Russian missile, former presidential candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan suggested on Saturday. Writing on Twitter, Dupont-Aignan, who heads the right-wing party Debout la France and has run for the presidency several times, said that “by launching a missile at Poland and accusing the Russians, Zelensky almost triggered World War III.” “Let’s stop supporting this dangerous man. [We should] urgently make up a peace plan,” he added.

Following up on his post, he claimed that the Ukraine conflict could be resolved only if Moscow and Kiev agree to a ceasefire and autonomy is given to the two Donbass republics, as the Minsk agreements were designed to do. Both the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics recently overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in public referendums. The politician also argued that any peace plan would have to include “Russia’s retreat” and “Ukraine’s neutrality.” On Tuesday, two civilians were killed when a missile landed in the Polish village of Przewodow near the Ukrainian border. Shortly after the incident, Poland signaled that it may invoke Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, which allows any member of the bloc to request consultations if it believes that its security is at risk. Western officials subsequently admitted that the missile was of Ukrainian and not Russian origin.

However, following the blast, Zelensky pinned the blame on Russia, calling the incident “a very serious escalation” and as an attack on NATO that demands a response. Later, however, he toned down his claims, admitting that “we do not know for 100%” what caused the explosion. The Russian Defense Ministry denied any involvement in the incident, saying its military experts had analyzed the photos from the scene and identified the debris as parts of an S-300 air defense system missile used by Ukraine. France, along with many other Western countries, has been providing Ukraine with military aid to support it in its fight against Russia. In recent months, Paris has sent to Kiev a number of Caesar self-propelled howitzers, MILAN anti-tank missiles, and other military hardware.

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“..if [Zelensky] does not accept the reality of Ukraine’s collapse, it is pointless to sit down at the [negotiating] table. And if [he] does accept it – he will be taken out by his own nationalists, who are intertwined with the army top brass.”

West Is ‘Pushing’ Kiev Toward Talks – Medvedev (RT)

The collective West is growing tired of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and is “pushing” Kiev into talks with Moscow, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in a Telegram post on Saturday. He added that the US and NATO don’t want to risk a new world war. The reaction to the missile strike that hit the Polish village of Przewodow on Tuesday, killing two civilians, has revealed a new “symptom” in this trend, with even “the most ardent Russophobes” in Warsaw refusing to blame the incident on Moscow, the ex-president commented. On Friday, Warsaw said the strike was an “unfortunate accident” that was “practically impossible” to prevent. Kiev has repeatedly tried to blame the strike on Moscow.

The Russian military, meanwhile, said it did not carry out any launches near the Ukrainian-Polish border at the time, while analysis of photos from the site showed that the projectile was an S-300 anti-aircraft missile operated by Ukraine’s military “Everyone is tired of the Kiev regime. Especially of the neurotic Zelensky, who is constantly whipping up tensions, whining, sniveling and extorting more and more money and weapons handouts. [He] acts like a hysterical child with developmental problems,” Medvedev stated. Fatigue with Kiev and its actions is prompting the collective West to “push” Ukraine into talks with Russia, the deputy head of the nation’s Security Council continued. “The US, NATO and the European Union do not want a complete rupture with Russia, risking a third world [war]. Hence, the frequent attempts to rein in Kiev and bring it to its senses, to push it to negotiate,” Medvedev wrote.

By refusing to talk with Russia, Zelensky is actually pursuing much more mundane and selfish goals, Medvedev suggested. He added that “if [Zelensky] does not accept the reality of Ukraine’s collapse, it is pointless to sit down at the [negotiating] table. And if [he] does accept it – he will be taken out by his own nationalists, who are intertwined with the army top brass.” The former president’s comments came as several leading politicians in the West, including French President Emmanuel Macron, have repeatedly called for direct talks between Kiev and Moscow. Recent reports have also indicated that Washington has been privately pushing Ukraine to drop its uncompromising rejection of the peace process with Russia. Last week, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, suggested that a Ukrainian military victory might be unachievable and that winter could provide an opportunity to begin talks with Moscow.

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Noted that Scholz, Sunak, Zelensky are all 1.70m (5’58”). That’s a lot of complexes to make up for. Even Macron is a whole inch taller.

Germany Warns Against Escalation Between Russia and NATO (RT)

The West should do its best to prevent an escalation between Russia and NATO, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday, while stressing that it is necessary to continue providing Ukraine with arms to fight Russia. Speaking at a conference of the Social Democratic Party in the southern German city of Friedrichshafen, Scholz admitted that many European citizens “are scared, and have reasons for it.” While highlighting the importance of supporting Ukraine militarily, he noted that Western countries should “be concerned that there is no escalation that could lead to a war between Russia and NATO.” “It is important to act prudently and decisively at the same time,” he added.

Scholz’s comments come after last month he warned against taking “careless steps” amid the Ukraine conflict. “There must be no direct conflict between Russia and NATO,” he stressed at the time. With relations between the West and Russia already having hit new lows after Moscow started its military operation in Ukraine, fears of a direct clash between Russia and NATO were recently triggered by a missile having landed in a Polish village close to the Ukrainian border. Shortly after the incident, the Polish Foreign Ministry claimed that the projectile was “Russian-made.” Later, the nation’s authorities signaled that they may invoke Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, which allows any bloc member to request consultations if it believes that its security is at risk.

Following the blast, Zelensky pinned the blame on Russia, calling the incident “a very serious escalation” and an attack on NATO that demanded a response. Ultimately, however, Western officials admitted that the missile was of Ukrainian and not Russian origin. The Russian Defense Ministry denied any involvement in the incident, saying its military experts had analyzed the photos from the scene and identified the debris as parts of an S-300 air defense system missile used by Ukraine. Germany, along with many other Western countries, has been providing Ukraine with military hardware, including Gepard anti-aircraft guns, MARS II multiple rocket launchers, and the IRIS-T air defense system. Moscow has repeatedly warned that weapons shipments will only prolong the Ukraine conflict.

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“..the recent record shows Xi has few reasons to take Biden at face value..”

Goodbye G20, hello BRICS+ (Escobar)

The increasingly irrelevant G20 Summit concluded with sure signs that BRICS+ will be the way forward for Global South cooperation. The redeeming quality of a tense G20 held in Bali – otherwise managed by laudable Indonesian graciousness – was to sharply define which way the geopolitical winds are blowing. That was encapsulated in the Summit’s two highlights: the much anticipated China-US presidential meeting – representing the most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century – and the final G20 statement. The 3-hour, 30-minute-long face-to-face meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden – requested by the White House – took place at the Chinese delegation’s residence in Bali, and not at the G20 venue at the luxury Apurva Kempinski in Nusa Dua.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs concisely outlined what really mattered. Specifically, Xi told Biden that Taiwan independence is simply out of the question. Xi also expressed hope that NATO, the EU, and the US will engage in “comprehensive dialogue” with Russia. Instead of confrontation, the Chinese president chose to highlight the layers of common interest and cooperation. Biden, according to the Chinese, made several points. The US does not seek a New Cold War; does not support “Taiwan independence;” does not support “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan”; does not seek “decoupling” from China; and does not want to contain Beijing. However, the recent record shows Xi has few reasons to take Biden at face value.

The final G20 statement was an even fuzzier matter: the result of arduous compromise. As much as the G20 is self-described as “the premier forum for global economic cooperation,” engaged to “address the world’s major economic challenges,” the G7 inside the G20 in Bali had the summit de facto hijacked by war. “War” gets almost double the number of mentions in the statement compared to “food” after all. The collective west, including the Japanese vassal state, was bent on including the war in Ukraine and its “economic impacts” – especially the food and energy crisis – in the statement. Yet without offering even a shade of context, related to NATO expansion. What mattered was to blame Russia – for everything.

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This kind of fantasy costs a lot of lives.

Ukraine Could Seize Crimea Before Year Ends – MOD (RT)

Ukraine could capture Russia’s Crimea by the end of this year, the country’s deputy defense minister, Vladimir Gavrilov, has said. In an interview with Sky New on Saturday, Gavrilov stated that what is known as a ‘black swan’ – or a sudden and unexpected event – could bring about Kiev’s victory. “I think Russia can face a black swan in their country, inside Russia, and this can contribute to [our] success with Crimea,”he said, adding that there was “also a military option as well with some kind of combination of forces, resources and something else.” “We can step into Crimea, for example, by the end of December. Possible? Possible. Not ruling out that it can be so,” Gavrilov added.

When asked what type of a black swan event could happen in the coming months, Gavrilov suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin could “disappear, for example, due to some reason, physical and political,” or that the Russian public could become “disillusioned” with the situation on the battlefield. Echoing a previous statement by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Gavrilov said that Kiev would resume negotiations with Russia “only when they’re ready to leave our territories.” Expressing optimism about Ukraine’s chances, Gavrilov stated: “My feeling is that by the end of spring this war will {be} over.” Crimea broke away from Ukraine and voted to join Russia shortly after the 2014 coup in Kiev.

In July, Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said that the refusal “by Ukraine or any NATO state” to consider Crimea a part of Russia would be considered a threat. In early October, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Ukraine’s former Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, officially became part of Russia following referendums that saw the majority of local residents vote in favor of accession. Last week, Russian troops withdrew from Kherson, amid concerns that Ukrainian forces could destroy a nearby hydroelectric dam, thus provoking flooding that could cause the deaths of soldiers and civilians. Putin said in late September that Moscow would defend the new territories “with full force and all means at our disposal.”

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“..Austin claimed that Ukraine’s population would rather go without electricity and heat than have talks with Moscow..”

You asked them?

‘Harsh Winter’ Ahead For Ukraine – Lloyd Austin (RT)

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned on Saturday that Ukraine faces a “harsh winter,” as Russia continues missile strikes on its infrastructure. Earlier, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, suggested that Kiev should take the opportunity to talk with Moscow. Speaking at the Halifax Security Forum in Canada, Austin praised the Ukrainian military’s efforts against Russia, but cautioned that “hard times lie ahead as Ukraine faces a harsh winter.” Although Ukraine has received tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons from the US and NATO, Russian drone and missile strikes have been pounding its command centers and energy infrastructure since early October. These launches have, according to Ukrainian authorities, left 40% of the country’s power infrastructure destroyed or damaged.

Amid the destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure, a split has reportedly emerged within the White House. Some top-level Biden administration officials are urging Kiev to keep fighting Russia “for as long as it takes,” whereas Milley has declared that Ukraine cannot win militarily and should instead seize “an opportunity to negotiate.” In his address on Saturday, Austin claimed that Ukraine’s population would rather go without electricity and heat than have talks with Moscow. However, he reiterated that the US would “not be dragged into [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war,” but would continue to funnel arms to Kiev.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. Earlier, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked. In early October, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, officially became part of Russia following referendums that saw the majority of local residents vote in favor of accession.

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Open. Door.

Outcome of Ukraine Conflict Will Help Define 21st Century – Lloyd Austin (RT)

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin declared on Saturday that the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine will shape the geopolitical order of the 21st century. The West’s “stability and prosperity” is on the line, he stressed. “The outcome of the war in Ukraine will help determine the course of global security in this young century,” Austin told an audience at the Halifax Security Forum in Canada. “And those of us in North America don’t have the option of sitting this one out.” “Stability and prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic are at stake,” he continued, asserting that Russia’s military operation “tears at the rules-based international order that keeps us all secure.”

“Rules-based international order” is a term often used interchangeably with “liberal world order.” It encompasses the web of Western-dominated institutions – such as the World Bank, World Trade Organization, UN, EU, and NATO – that have regulated global diplomacy, trade, and conflict since the end of World War II. Commenting on this approach before, Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that, rather than benefiting the whole world, this order serves as an instrument of “unipolar hegemony,” used by the US to make the rest of the world its “vassals.”

“The West is insisting on a rules-based order,” he remarked in a speech in September. “Where did that come from anyway? Who has ever seen these rules? Who agreed or approved them?” “Russia is a great thousand-year-old power, a whole civilisation, and it is not going to live by such makeshift, false rules,” he declared. Putin has spoken on numerous occasions of building a competing “multipolar” world order, in which multiple superpowers balance and constrain each other, and disputes are settled in accordance with laws rather than Western-dictated “rules.” Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared that Beijing stands ready to work with Russia “and other like-minded countries to promote the development of a multipolar world.”

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“It’s hardly a surprise he did not go into detail on how this affordable price would be achieved. …This is a free market, isn’t it?”

EU Leaders Accuse US Natural Gas Producers Of Profiteering (IA)

European leaders are unhappy with natural gas prices. Some leaders are insisting that the EU impose a price cap on all natural gas imports, regardless of origin, – notes Oilprice.com. France’s president Emmanuel Macron accused the United States of a “double standard” because of the difference between the price at which liquefied natural gas produced in the U.S. sells in Europe and the price at which natural gas sells within the U.S. “The North American economy is making choices for the sake of attractiveness, which I respect, but they create a double standard,” Macron said, also adding that “they allow state aid going to up to 80% on some sectors while it’s banned here – you get a double standard.”

He wasn’t alone among European national leaders in being unhappy about gas prices. In fact, as many as 15 leaders were unhappy, and they insisted that the EU imposes a price cap on all natural gas imports, regardless of origin. Now, the U.S. is striking back at the accusations. “What’s happening is the companies that hold those long-term contracts with US LNG producers, they’re marking that up and earning that margin in the European market,” Brian Crabtree, an assistant secretary at the Department of Energy, – told the Financial Times. “It’s not the US LNG company, it’s basically European-headquartered international oil companies and traders.” Indeed, producers of liquefied natural gas do not invariably sell their product directly to the consumer, in the face of a country in Europe, for instance, They work with commodity majors such as Vitol and Trafigura, or the supermajors, including BP and Shell.

This is not to say that LNG producers are not benefiting from the much stronger demand for LNG from Europe. And this is exactly the reason they have been benefiting, in the form of higher profits: demand has surged, and when demand surges, prices follow, especially if supply is not growing as fast as demand. In other words, Europe seems to want businesses to not act as businesses and take every opportunity to make a profit, which is what businesses are all about. Be that as it may, a Ministry of Energy analyst, told the FT that the U.S. was committed to helping Europe get enough gas “at a price that is affordable to the continent.” It’s hardly a surprise he did not go into detail on how this affordable price would be achieved. …This is a free market, isn’t it?

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“..prevents nearly half of the French population from leaving their homes..”

‘Laziness Epidemic’ Grips France – Study (RT)

Laziness regularly prevents nearly half of the French population from leaving their homes, a new study has revealed. The “epidemic of laziness,” which is affecting roughly 45% of the population, is a direct consequence of the Covid lockdowns, the researchers say. “This laziness to leave home particularly affects the medium age groups: 52% among 25-34 year olds and 53% among 35-49 year olds, against only 33% of those 65 and over,” according to the study by the International Market Research Group (IFOP) and the Jean-Jaures foundation think tank. The survey, which was published last week, found that “the appeal of the sofa seems to be very powerful,” and the word “bed” had positive connotations for 74% of the respondents.

According to the research, the pandemic and strict lockdowns have had “a profound impact” on the attitude of the French to work, family life, free time, and personal space. Some 37% of respondents said they were less motivated than before in their work, and 41% complained about feeling more tired. The increase in fatigue seems to occur regardless of gender, age, social background, and location and “affects the morale of the population,” according to the research. From a historical standpoint, the attitudes of the French to ‘work-life balance’ have changed even more dramatically, the study shows. In 1990, 60% of French people believed that work was “very important,” compared to only 24% in 2021.

In 1953, 54% of employed adults believed that they had a good work-life balance. Now, only 39% think that is the case, while 48% of respondents “consider themselves to be losers.” This “movement of tectonic plates,” as the study puts it, was exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, but its origins are related to the general “devaluation of certain business experiences.” Regular lay-offs of long-term staff and management focusing solely on financial achievement “have altered the relationship” between employers and employees, the research claims. Some 1,001 French adults took part in the research, which was conducted online between September 1 and 2.

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Home Forums Debt Rattle November 20 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 52 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #121454

    Paul Gauguin Van Gogh painting sunflowers 1888   • Musk Reinstates Trump’s Twitter Account After Millions Vote In Poll (JTN) • War On Everything
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle November 20 2022]

    #121455
    That Bloke
    Participant

    By my calculations, 1m70 puts all three a shade under 5’7” making them officially shrort arses. Putin is the same height, too. What can it all mean?

    Blue Marmalade

    #121456
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    The concern over Musk’s Halloween costume amuses me. Halloween is supposed to, er, celebrate evil things. Elon, being an alpha narcissist, of course took it to the extreme.

    Hardly any one would object if he wore a Freddy Krueger costume, and Freddy was pretty evil, I understand.

    #121458
    The Black
    Participant

    Only 1 of the 2 following scenarios is possible:
    Scenario 1: Gary Gensler, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, Tony Blair, Maxine Waters (Chairperson of the House Financial Services Committee) among others, KNEW what SBF was doing.
    Scenario 2: NONE of these people knew what SBF was doing.

    #121460
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @ThatBloke you asked, “What can it all mean?”

    It could mean that the short guys need more help to win fights, but we all know from lived experience that that just ain’t the case. David was small. Or it could mean that smallish folk are more pugnacious in compensation for their size, but that’s demonstrably untrue as well. For example Mahatma Gandhi, or James Madison. Finally it might mean nothing at all, which looks like the historical winner.

    #121461
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    When Elon Musk made his first move to acquiring Twitter, I thought, ‘He’s aiming to run for president.’ His poll to reinstate Trump bids me double down on this prediction, particularly since Trump has (at least initially) declined in favor of his own media platform.

    Logic behind the double-down is that it takes a high-achieving narcissist to recognize, study, understand, and thereby emulate what another high-achieving narcissist has done.

    Big diff between Trump and Musk is that Musk is younger and tougher than Trump, who is way past his sell-by date. If it weren’t for Musk’s openly declared support of the covid vakzines, I’d expect to see him in the White House come 2024, assuming that the USA is still in one piece politically at that time. But it is also possible that Musk will not run himself but will use his media platform/savvy to foster and promote a candidate for the presidency.

    Musk is nuts, but he’s brilliantly nuts. The way he sold the populace on terraforming Mars was a brilliant manipulation of humanity’s deep underlying dread of our looming Terran fate, a dread that most people deny and suppress.

    ***

    To be void of doubt is to be full of shit. But to be full of doubt is to be void of belief, which leads to de facto solipsism which is a form of self-imposed solitary confinement, which is usually very bad for mental health.

    To neither believe nor disbelieve but simply observe is very difficult but yields insight.

    ***

    Big Bang entropic cosmic “death” requires our current cosmo-loogic/genic-al model to be accurate. It may be, but it increasingly shows signs of what I wi8ll call Ptolemaic wear’n’tear: the Ptolemaic cosmology died from an ever-growing number of epicyclical planetary motions that simply don’t exist. We see this principle echoed in a) quantum indeterminacy and its implications, and b) the growing number of hypothetical substances like dark matter and dark energy required to hold the current cosmological model together.

    I remember when TV screens acted like tiny big bangs. The image took a minute to form while the thermionic valves (aka “tubes”) warmed up.

    At first, there was just a tiny on the screen and a vaguely audible hypersonic whine. Then, suddenly, the dot EXPANDED into a full screen image of, oh, say:

    ***

    And now, some Czech paganism a la Britney Spears and, oh, Vito Morgenstern?

    Humans be Horny

    We take our virtual realities SO seriously these days. I guess cuz real reality is virtually (ha!) unknown to us, and what we do know of it terrifies and disgusts so many of us.

    #121462
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @Boscohorowitz

    To delve for wealth in a bucket of shit will yield pretty much the same result as delving for truth in materialism. What is it with you and God, anyway? Scared or somethin’ ?

    What a WASTE that a guy with your brains and creative writing genius is so averse to the notion that the Universe was not a fucking accident.

    #121463

    Re: the Pelham tweet

    It would be nice to have a copy of the said “suggestion” from the Ont College of Physicians and Surgeons to bolster this startling news.

    It’s one thing to be prevented from travel outside one’s country, and quite another to be deemed mentally impaired with all the remedial measures imposed – from a caring government and their supporters of course..

    Wow. Dr. Mengele would be so proud..

    #121464
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Maxine Waters just blew a #kiss to #SamBankmanFried

    smoochsmoochsmooch

    I love you SBF money boy!!!

    #121465
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Gun Sales Skyrocket after Oregon Passes Measure Restricting Gun Rights”

    The Eastern slaves are restless and looking to flee, so the Western slave owners have to disarm them. Colonialism, human slavery, all shades. Since probably 100% of gun crimes are in the West and Portland, why do they feel the need to outlaw guns that are safe? Yes, because: slavery. They don’t want their slaves getting free. I guess we’ll see how that goes. I’d say not well as they are excellent shooters, but these days it’s more likely to be cut off in the Supreme Court instead.

    “CBS News Stops Posting on Twitter out of “Abundance of Caution”

    CBS finally does something about misinformation. They’ve stopped talking.

    I was going to write an article that I was shocked and assured that both the Wisconsin black supremacist mass-murderer, AND the NYC Antifa lawyer who firebombed police AND handed out firebombs widely, were both sentenced. However, the lawyer was given a slap on the wrist for trying to kill…well everyone, anyone, police…AND commit arson in an EXTREMELY dense, populated area where thousands could die easily. So, it’s still carte blanche for leftists: kill anyone you want, especially black people, neighborhoods, immigrants in custody, and Kamala Harris will get you off. It’s an old Weatherman tradition: bank robbery, arson, murder, then Congress! Where the real felons live.

    But Theranos was sentenced to 11 years. For a hundred-billion dollar white collar crime that gave completely false, random results to millions of medical tests. So yes, also a pittance, a slap on the wrist.

    “Ukraine Rejects Alleged Offer Of “Short Truce” By Russia: “A truly real, long-lasting and honest peace can only be the result of the complete demolition of Russian aggression,” Zelensky said”

    Another very smart move by Russia. They’re still massing for winter: no difference. But they can demonstrate Ukraine hasn’t the slightest interest in peace, of any kind, even a test peace to prove good faith. And that their intent is and remains the complete annihilation and subjugation of Russia. And to show it to the world. Again.

    If I were Ukraine, I’d take the peace and double-cross them. Again. That’s tactically smarter. They’re not that smart.

    But in the Heroic Polish Tractor Incident, don’t we see the shadows of what we’ve seen all over for two years? They’re not really running things, especially the military. America at a deeper level is stopping the escalations. If this is true, then America is also ALLOWING Russia to solve their Ukraine problem by taking it over. Just the way we solved their critical manufacturing and financial weaknesses by embargoing them – gently – for 5 years. I don’t know how people can’t see this. If I keep robbing you and every day you get richer, what’s happening?

    A federal judge in Florida partially blocked a law that forbids schools from telling students that certain people are “privileged or oppressed” due to their race or sex, calling it “positively dystopian.”

    This is quite interesting, and why governments should not be involved. “Government is FIRE. It is FORCE…” Okay, government can’t forbid speech, I understand that. But they also pay for it. So government must and can only give money to people who can do whatever they feel like? They’re not employees and we don’t set the curriculum? You see the problem. So who DOES set the curriculum if we the taxpayers, don’t? CNN? NPR?

    “Canadian Bank Launches Credit Card Linked to Carbon Emissions”

    They already did this then shut off the heat to Colorado houses in a snowstorm. I’m thinking this is not going to go well.

    “FedCoin: It Starts with a Trial Run

    Same, and as an aligned setup with FTX. FTX bomb may have detonated too early before things were set and the evidence burned – and imagine if they’d taken out a REAL exchange, like Binance as attempted – but Yellen spoke of regulating just a week before, and they got all the talking heads – including the crypto bois – to jump on the “Regulate me Daddy” bandwagon. This is just in time to release the “Regulated crypto” (actually not a crypto) FedCoin. Which is in time for the unstoppable compounding debt collapse. The Treasury seems to be withholding 2/3rds of their silver Eagles right now as well, both not to sell it at a price-rigged loss, and to have adequate supply laid up to stabilize the nation. Same with penny-coins again. Just before Sept ‘19, coins all vanished and we could see them on the books of the major banks. What an interesting change from the usual: I thought you wanted to outlaw coins as expensive relics, yet here you are hoarding them by the billions! “Then a Miracle Happened” and the system didn’t melt down, it locked down.

    But here we are again, with notices at registers that coins are in shortage. And Ye Olde Fed Coin ready to go. Giving out SS, SSDI, and EBT only in this currency, which will give it traction. …That is not a crypto, has no transparency, no supply limits, and is more completely tracked than in prison. It’s an excel sheet for purchases, that dials home with every transaction.

    Did you buy a turkey and drive to grandma’s house? Not anymore you earth-killing parasite: locked out: no coin for you!

    “Protesters Set Fire to Iconic Home of Islamic Republic Founder Ayatollah Khomeini”

    The Yanks are still at their stupid color revolution. Iranian people are still patsies for us, right on cue, if the blue square tells them to. So cute.

    “FBI Director Cannot “Be Sure” Whether Facebook Is Sending User Information to Agents”

    It’s a fascist state: of COURSE they are. It wouldn’t be fascism if they didn’t.

    “UK Hikes Windfall Taxes on Oil and Gas to 35%”

    That’s not PROFIT you morons, that’s 25% INFLATION. That YOU caused. However, Germany just de-facto NATIONALIZED the energy industry with a 99% tax. And thus: Fascism. Merger of Corporation and State. “Owns (or controls) the Means of Production” in a worker’s paradise forever.

    “War on Everything (El Gato Malo)”

    Great writing.

    “The goal is not to stop drugs. The goal is to rule and to profit.

    The purpose of the rule and regulation is POWER. Power to permit more drugs, more crime, more violence, but licensed by me, paid to me. At my discretion, to my friends. That’s why once regulated there has to be more than ever before: otherwise we wouldn’t profit. Otherwise, why do it?

    “the african american community in the US that was literally devastated by the so called “great society” programs”

    Yes but to be fair they’ve only known it destroys all Blacks for 50 years. That’s why they kept doing it and all Blue places are the worst in America for them. Too soon? Should we try a little longer? Chicago’s problems aren’t the fault of JimmyJohn in Bowling Green Kentucky. Duh. Yet they sell this for 50 more years and it still works.

    “ Europe Warns Musk He Must Hire Hundreds of Moderators (ZH)”

    Make me. We’ll see you when the court case resolves in seven years. Europe will implode first.

    “German Public TV Compares Elon Musk to Goebbels (Kogon)”

    Ah so much here.
    Yes, and Goebbels was an acolyte of Madison Avenue and Bernays.
    The Picture shown here as a smear is exactly the one Biden was channeling in his Red Wedding speech.
    And free speech = Hitler, a man of UN-free speech? Yes, that’s the same as RUSSIA being Hitler instead of the ENEMY of Hitler and 2/3rd the cause of their end at the cost of 20M dead Russians. …Talk about Goebbels.
    And Speech = War, apparently?
    Allowing people to speak = them clamoring for “Total War” of 60M people? Non Sequitur much? How many is Orange?
    Meanwhile ACTUALLY killing upwards of 100,000 male Ukrainians is…speech and peace I suppose?
    A Ukraine that expressly SUPPORTED Goebbels and Hitler? Who were so violent the Nazi SS told them to slow the f– down?

    No doubt there are hundreds more, but I’ll stop at this.

    “Noted that Scholz, Sunak, Zelensky are all 1.70m (5’58”).”

    Little men. But I wasn’t referring to their height.

    “There must be no direct conflict between Russia and NATO,”

    Uh, whut? We should be referring to their brain power, morans.

    Ukraine Could Seize Crimea before Year Ends – MOD (RT) “

    This month? And we thought Hitler was nuts, hanging around on meth. Did someone inform him Russia is a nuclear armed country ten times their size? If you take Crimea, Ukraine will be nuked tomorrow. In ten seconds you won’t exist. But: Nazis and phyrric victories, amirite?

    “Gavrilov suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin could “disappear”

    Yes, and if he disappears, Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more hard-liners will take over. And take Ukraine AND Germany, firing every hypersonic missile and bioweapon. On London, Sydney, and New York. Confider yourself lucky they’re not at war. Distance won’t save you.

    “EU Leaders Accuse US Natural Gas Producers of Profiteering (IA)”

    But I thought this was a NeoLiberal “Rules based order”! That is, as they say: Capitalism. But we don’t allow profits and price-fix worldwide? And no bankruptcy? That seems a lot like the #OPPOSITE of Capitalism, i.e. Socialism.

    “Laziness regularly prevents” Prevents? We must declare war on this oppressor “Laziness” and bomb it from Marseilles to Strasbourg. We will never, never stop bombing until all laziness is killed.

    In actuality, the French just say “Why bother?”, like the erst of us. “We pretend to work, and you pretend to pay us.” Why pretend? Pay is completely 100% divorced from effort, skill, or outcomes. Because #Above, “The #OPPOSITE of Capitalism”. That is, we central planners set a random price for random goods and it changes from hour to hour. If there are shortages or outages, they are paid and rewarded. If there are surpluses, they are ruthlessly punished. This is a stupid game, with no rules or logic. No matter what happens, the bratty rich kid wins. Why play it?

    #121466
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons did not dream that “suggestion” up all by their lonesome. I daresay it came down to them as an extremely unambiguous order.

    Want to know who comprises the Cabal? Just trace that order back up through the chain of command to its source. Bingo!

    #121467
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Picture an armed mugger “suggesting” that the victim hand over their wallet.

    #121468
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Sam Bankman is Fried

    .

    #121469
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @DrD “CBS finally does something about misinformation. They’ve stopped talking.”

    Eat your heart out Boscohorowitz, Dr D just edged ahead of you in “Best One Liner of the Year” awards.

    [historical reminder: Bosco received the award earlier for his timeless “They just don’t make canon fodder like they used to.”]

    #121470
    Dora
    Participant
    #121471
    zerosum
    Participant

    “Oh, never mind, who cares?”
    Twitter – free speech – “rubbish” – anything not endorsed by – “working relationship” – expectations
    ————
    I’m busy/occupied/doing my part/got no time for Twitter ……
    I’m feeding/supporting/participating in an eco-system of millions of other life forms, in a critical/important system in the universal circle of life.
    ————–
    Name calling
    the neurotic Zelensky, who is constantly whipping up tensions, whining, sniveling and extorting more and more money and weapons handouts. [He] acts like a hysterical child with developmental problems,” Medvedev stated.

    • West Is ‘Pushing’ Kiev Toward Talks – Medvedev (RT)
    Therefore, not his fault,( Zelensky), killing upwards of 100,000 male Ukrainians
    ——–
    – Irrelevant Luxury/expense/illusion -Thanksgiving Dinner Price Shock
    ———-
    Irrelevant association – The continuous/abundance/creation of the energy of life makes/requires/causes/related to the dark energy/expansion of the universe
    ———
    Beyond my pay grade

    WTF Happened with FTX (Part 1 of 3)


    WTF Happened with FTX (Part 1 of 3)
    BY SCOTT HILL

    November 19, 2022
    On November 2nd Coindesk published a leaked balance sheet from FTX affiliated market maker Alameda Research.

    Ten days later the third largest Crypto exchange in the world was bankrupt and its founder was under international investigation for fraud.

    In this article I’ll go through how Crypto giant FTX fell apart. There is a lot of backstory to this situation which I’ll cover in a following article, discussing the beginnings of Alameda research and the story of how a sketchy hedge fund turned into a major exchange.
    Read more …….
    ———-

    #121472
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I wonder what the ratio is between cops and robbers [ nota bene, “dirty cops” are on the robber side of the ledger ] and what’s going to happen when the number of newly exposed robbers (which is rising exponentially as we speak) outstrips the number of active cops by a factor that exceeds our powers of comprehension.

    #121474
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    MUSK & THE EU

    I think Musk could make it awkward for the EU, for example asking them to pay for all the costs of the censors, or offering to feed all tweets to an EU censorship bureau.

    Failing that he could shut down Twitter in the EU with a link to a document explaining why he shut it down, a list of all those demanding censorship, a complete list of all censorship requirements, and a suggestion that they use VPN to access Twitter without censorship.

    He could also give a list of all companies which have withdrawn advertising but saying that Twitter users should ‘not’ boycott them!

    #121475
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Iz tezt:

    #121476
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Oh well. I have to post it as a link. Following image is from Portland’s Chinatown Red Light district, a romantically sleazy place that I nominate as being Most Like William Gibson’s Sprawl:

    Not far from the Golden Dragon strip club

    #121477
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I’d prefer it if DBSmith honored the boundary line he and I drew awhile back, and not address me personally for any reason. (We had a deal. So much for deals?) I have nothing to say to him although I will remark at will on the ideas/data he introduces since that is what this gossip section is for, and have no prob with him remarking on ideas/data that I introduce.

    ***

    Shared strictly for the guitar solo and the vintage orbital footage

    ***

    Some may enjoy this blog. He manages to discuss difficult things without the hysteria prevailing on the alt-media du jour, which currently appears to be substack. One of those sources one can learn things from without feeling the need to agree or disagree, or such is my experience.

    ***

    (rmaond bot oisen)

    I wonder how VP is? Our mutual enmity doesn’t preclude caring about a person’s well-being (even if one may be perceived as being hostile to same). Approval or disapproval, rebuttal or endorsement, are just likes and dislikes.

    Love, imo, is acceptance, and hate is the opposite. One might say that there is no love lost between VP and I, but that confuses loving acceptance with approval. Loving acceptance and disapproving confrontation can coexist. Look at your average marriage that’s gone serious distance. 😉

    Anyway, I hope that VP’s silence indicates silent rumination or disdain toward us, and not increased suffering on his part.

    I have a horror of appearing sanctimonious, so just to make sure I’ve done my best to convey my sincerity, let me restate that the old bugger gives me a major case of anal heartburn, and I find his posts mostly hurtful and annoying. But, that said, because of this annoyance factor those posts have also, helped me focus on taming my own wild mind. Severe approval and severe disapproval can both be very powerfully motivating, and I enjoy life best when I feel grateful for as much as I possibly can.

    Da Lord, dem sez, woiks in de misteruss ways.

    ***

    Kitty Tune cuz Carla Bley’s daughter, Karen Mantler, is awesome.

    #121478
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Agreed.

    #121479
    Dora
    Participant

    Sam Bankman-Fried and the Pandemic Industrial Complex

    https://michaelpsenger.substack.com/p/sam-bankman-fried-and-the-pandemic

    #121481
    John Day
    Participant

    I’m interested in the proposition that Musk’s Twitter poll about reinstating Trump’s account was a “bot trap”.

    Anybody got more on that?

    #121482
    morongobill
    Participant

    Mick Ronson and David Bowie, what a team. Gone way too soon.

    #121483
    John Day
    Participant

    Epsilon Theory peeks out from behind the usual paywall with an unusually good portrayal of how alameda & FTX drifted further and further into Ponzi world as they fixed short-term funding shortfalls.
    There are a lot of specific details of the copying of Bernie Madoff’s model, but first: Slippin’into darkness:.

    The MacGuffin, Part 2: The Story Arc of SBF and FTX

    #121484
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Bad cattitude- war on everything
    I agree with his overall premise, but disagree with some of what he is using to support the premise.

    Tax is not solely something imposed willy, nilly from above. In the recent election was a proposition for a tiny increase in sales tax for a couple of years to support rural firefighting. The last time I looked, it was passing by a narrow margin. The public school bond and budget overrides in AZ are also always put to popular vote, and nearly always pass. The recent Prop 209, expanding generosity to debtors passed by a huge margin. There is a generosity in the American people, and they do voluntarily submit to many taxes (according to our laws of majority rule) simply because they support what is being done with the tax money. Of course, the preponderance of taxes are created by legislative bodies of individuals who largely get into office due to expensive campaigns, rather than created through direct democracy — and those taxes can be easily interpreted as impositions, having little relevance to the desires of the people.

    The idea that by giving someone something that you are preventing them from developing self-sufficiency is false on it’s face. Primarily, this is because there are so many factors at play that while the facts of a situation sometimes correlate to this narrative, very frequently they DON’T correlate to this narrative.

    First, our Western culture prizes charity and philanthropy while stigmatizing the receipt of such gifts. This is out of balance, for without receiving, there is no giving. How can giving be noble and receiving be sordid? They are two sides of the same coin. In reality, there are always some in human societies that are not self-sufficient — primarily children, the infirm, and the elderly. There are also always members of society who are healthy and robust. The strong produce more than they need, and due to this there is enough for those who are not self-sufficient to thrive. For many who are not self-sufficient this state is transitory — it is due to youth or temporary illness or injury, disasters, etc. For the elderly and some others, they will never be able to reach or return to self-sufficiency. And then there is a third group — those who could, theoretically, be self-sufficient but prefer to mooch off of others’ labors, those who are lost in addictions or those who simply struggle to fit into society and haven’t found a niche that fits them. Some of the moochers we call criminals, and others we laud and and look up to. Sometimes the laudable fall — like SBF. As for the ones who simply haven’t found a niche that fits — with some thought and care, many of them can return to self-sufficiency and/or productivity.

    It is true that by dumping free rice or free used clothing in poor nations that their local economies in food staples and clothing have been decimated. However, there are larger forces at play than “giving gifts is bad for the recipient” or recipient economy. In the US, the clothing manufacturing industry over the last fifty years or so has also been decimated — but not by the donation of free clothing. It has been decimated by the introduction of clothing produced in oversees sweatshops and factories by workers receiving wages that amount to pennies on the US dollar.

    It seems to me that economies that used to produce individuals, families, and local communities that were largely self-reliant and self-sufficient (I’m thinking of Charles Hugh Smith’s recent book, Self-Reliance in the 21st Century,), have been perverted by corporate capitalism into cash cows for well-placed individuals and families, designed to create individuals from the masses who are dependent upon “the system” for their survival, (and therefore docilely submit,) rather than cohesive, self-reliant communities.

    I and my children have received food stamps and free healthcare for more than a decade. Instead of preventing me from achieving self-sufficiency, this has given us some stability as I navigated through a very difficult 10 years. My income has increased during this time. I am expanding my garden to produce our own food and practice animal husbandry with hens. During the past year I have embarked on a project to put a floor in the attic, creating storage space, ridding it of rats, and repairing the damage from the rats. I decided that I wanted to spend $0 on supplies for the floor. (I’ve purchased some electrical components, as needed, for repairs.) Every quarter there is bulk trash pickup by the city. I peruse these discard piles for boards and distressed furniture that I can deconstruct, cut, and use for the project. I remove and reuse the screws. I am more than halfway done with the project.

    Many years ago my wealthy ex-sister-in-law refused my petition for aid for myself and the children, explaining that while they could spare the money, it would damage my ability to be self-sufficient. Without aid, I would have lost our home, and this would have made it very difficult to continue my self-employment activities. I obtained the needed aid elsewhere, and have thrived and improved our situation.

    #121485
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @JohnDay About the Twitterized Trump petition being a bot trap

    There are technical tools for identifying bots, providing that those tools are directed toward and are parsing a data stream that is rich enough in targets to make it worth the resources spent in the process. Responses (both pro Trump and anti) as to whether or not Donald Trump should or should not be allowed freedom of speech on a global platform like Twitter should be a bot-rich data stream indeed.

    #121486
    That Bloke
    Participant

    I was listening to Tom Luongo talking to Dexter White about the whole FTX rip off and the possibility that it was entirely deliberate to expose Dem shenanigans, trash (faith in) crypto and to shaft Davos. No idea if they’re right, but it seems plausible and made for an interesting listen. I was disappointed though to learn that Fried, in terms of SBF, is pronounced “freed” and does not rhyme with “cried” as I was saying it in my head. But I did like White’s other name for him – Sam Bankster-Fraud.

    #121487
    WES
    Participant

    I think we can all agree FTX was deliberately planned by members of the criminal uniparty in DC to enrich themselves.

    #121488
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    It is encouraging that the turds that make their way to the top layer of the stream of sewage that is politics in ‘western’ nations are not being referred to as ‘elites’ so much these days. In fact, they more frequently referred to as manipulative, psychotic sociopaths who promote totalitarian fascism via propaganda, censorship and warmongering.

    The festering pustule that these NATOstan maniacs have created obviously needed lancing long ago. However, their propaganda, censorship and warmongering -including war on the populations of the nations they pretended to serve- allowed them to inflate the festering pustule.

    The Russians seem to be the ones armed with the best lance and are in the process of using it.

    Stand back when the pus starts to emerge or erupts out of the thing. It’s going to be very messy. And it is likely to occur some time in the next few months.

    There was an old English saying: Bullshit may get you to the top, but it can’t keep you there.

    The Scorpion will be miffed again: Its image is not included in the group of sociopaths depicted crushing freedom -and it has been trying so hard to crush everything in NZ -from freedom of speech to educational standards to the standard of living to the entire economy:

    #121489
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ftx-reveals-top-50-creditors-are-owed-31-billion-seeks-keep-their-names-confidential
    FTX Reveals Top 50 Creditors Are Owed $3.1 Billion, Seeks To Keep Their Names Confidential

    BY TYLER DURDEN
    In retrospect, considering that FTX previously estimated that it has over 1 million creditors – which ostensibly includes all clients of the FTX brokerage from the smallest mom and pop investors to massive Chinese money laundering whales – this is probably not all that surprising, although it will be interesting to see how Judge John Dorsey, who is the appointed Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge on the FTX bankruptcy, will rule on November 22, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. (at Courtroom #5 on the 5th floor at 824 North Market Street in Wilmington) when the First Day hearing takes place.

    As an aside, since the creditors of FTX also includes FTX clients, one wonders if there is a political push to keep certain names hidden, despite official denials?
    And in a separate filing pushed out later on Saturday, FTX published a list of its top unsecured 50 creditors – with all names and addresses redacted – which shows that the largest creditor (or is that FTX customer) had $226 million parked at the company, and that all of the top 10 creditors had over $100 million in debt with FTX.

    In total, FTX owed its top 50 creditors a total of $3.1 billion. The full list of the 50 unnamed creditrs can be found here.

    In another filing, FTX said the company had 330 workers around the world but was experiencing “extraordinary attrition”, and asked the court’s permission to continue paying remaining employees which were critical to the bankruptcy case.

    FTX also disclosed that the new CEO Ray is billing his time at $1,300 an hour and had been paid a $200k retainer fee.

    #121493
    John Day
    Participant

    @D Benton Smith: Thanks, still intrigued by the Trump-poll-bot-trap meme.

    Also interested in more money going POOF in crypto bubbles. That’s anti-inflationary, after all.

    Also interestedinifMusk turns Twitter and global satellite communication network into something like a cryptocurrency that can actually be used to buy groceries, cocaine, heroin, M77 Howitzers, political influence, and all those things that suitcases of $100 bills are good for.

    #121494
    zerosum
    Participant

    Cryptocurrency charges a fee for service.
    I prefer Visa. The fee is lower.

    #121495
    Redneck
    Participant

    This is from October 25th 22 , this year!!!

    This is very late in the fray to start organisng gear for an invasion that has been ongoing since Feb. The bureaucrats did not even get their shit together in time for the meeting , in a time of war.

    “The President held a meeting, via videoconference, with members of the Government Coordination Council on meeting the needs of the Russian Federation Armed Forces, other troops, military formations and bodies.”

    PUTIN

    “Let me remind you that the Coordination Council was to have formulated target objectives for each specific effort by today. These target objectives are not ready yet, but I have no doubt that they will be sent in in the near future.”

    You hope!

    “And now the situation is such that life itself is pushing us to give this effort the most profound consideration and develop common approaches to updating all procedures, all administrative procedures, everything that is part of “governance” in the broadest sense of the word. And this, of course, cannot be done without broad and deep coordination between all efforts, all entities, all ministries, agencies with entirely different scopes – officials responsible for security and economics, and regional governments. This is precisely the purpose that the Coordination Council was created for.”

    “And now the situation is such that life itself is pushing us to give this effort the most profound consideration”.

    And now? In October?

    Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin: replies.

    “Mr President, separately I will discuss special personal protective equipment and materials for them as it is an important issue. It is important to increase their production and to launch full-scale production of uniforms and clothing items to fully provide mobilised citizens with all they may need. The light industry capacities, including small businesses in the regions, and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation must be involved in this. Uninterrupted supplies of raw materials, materials, fabrics must be organised as well.”

    What a furkin joke , this is the great independent manufacturing power house that wants to run the world?
    So all that stuff about the lack of the basic gear for ground forces is true. They organised all the gear for doomsday but nothing for a conventional war? Or did the Wagner dudes steal it all? Without Wagner they would be in even deeper doo-doo. Get your shit together.
    http://en.kremlin.ru/catalog/keywords/91/events/69676

    #121496
    zerosum
    Participant

    Raise the white flag
    Frontline conditions, for Ukraine forces, in the winter, will not be pleasant.

    #121497
    Redneck
    Participant

    After digesting the G20 manifesto a bit more it seems clear that the Western oligarchs have agreed to continue to bleed the West out . Using the open borders to destroy the indigenous culture and the global warming scam to impoverish them.
    I assume this is to keep the non Western countries on side as they will increase their wealth and power more quickly with the West becoming increasingly poorer and irrelevant?
    The plan then is to try to keep control of global finances by appeasing the up and coming states by suppressing the West , a sacrifice of us so as to stay in charge of the global economy?
    Or is it that they only have the power to destroy us where as in fact their eugenics ideology wants to destroy every body but they can’t reach that wide?
    What is their key motive , money or ideology or both?
    If I look at it that way I can see why every one signed on because they know the destruction of the West will proceed as planned.
    Curious.

    #121498

    Zerosum (via John Day, via me (post #121244)- Why charge anything? Imagine the power- a starlink terminal will be like having the railroad stop in your town.
    Control the money- control the world. (various)

    #121499
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Luongo has the same take as I do on FTX: made to fail, to rob, and to regulate. He defines that the core value is to erase the competition first, i.e. Binance. That is a necessary component and why it failed too soon. Also that the purpose BY eating the competition is to roll the residue of reality, i.e. US$ and actual coins, int FTX so they could all be stolen. Hey, robbing a bank that’s 99% empty is pointless, yes? Unless the 1% remaining is still $10 million dollars. And it was. FTX did both, from day 1, overseen by regulators who are identical to the same money-center banks, that is, NY and Wall Street. However, it blew up spectactularly and prematurely, while not taking out any other important exchanges. AND the regulators/government look like the cause, not the solution.

    “First, our Western culture prizes charity and philanthropy while stigmatizing the receipt of such gifts. This is out of balance, for without receiving, there is no giving. How can giving be noble and receiving be sordid?”

    You’re missing exactly why it’s sordid: It’s not charity. Charity is GIVEN. Voluntarily. Taxes are STOLEN. Forced. How can a right and just act begin and end with force? How does it end with force? Because when it’s government, it isn’t “Given” either: it’s required. Via the rules. Then if you’re misbehaving, if it’s doing you harm, too bad, you get it anyway. We don’t stop because you’ll take this to O.D. tonight: I’ll just write that down on this database that goes somewhere, maybe somebody will act on it, but probably not. Thoughtless, soulless disconnect from humanity and need. Install faceless, uncaring, miserable bureaucrats trying everything they can think of to forestall the needed giving. Then everything they can think of to prevent your returning to health, prosperity, and the ability pay it back by being able to give your own free charity someday.

    This principle is exactly the same as sex as love, and sex as rape or prostitution. It really WOULD be great, IF ONLY… But it’s not. It’s extremely corrosive.

    So IF it were charity, it would be two sides of the same coin, and honorable, as it cost something. But it isn’t. It didn’t. Worse, it forestalls or prevents or impoverishes normal people so much with their 50% overhead that they can’t, and don’t see the need for, providing and experiencing charity, of themselves helping, participating, and giving to those in need. This impoverishes them, and us, as well. But what are we supposed to do? Pay it twice? Yes, I pay in taxes to have this fixed, then the state blows half of it on hookers for the Governor. Am I supposed to ALSO give charity on my own? Does anyone have that kind of money? Wouldn’t we fix the first violence, theft, and misallocation first? …Then we just go in a 50-year debate about how it’s being executed without paying the slightest mind to those in need: the party of providing and the party of fixing it alike. Is this what we want?

    The strong produce more than they “need”. So we just take from them. Cough it up, bucko! I have need, so chop chop, gimme your money. Go get more. Your car’s almost paid off for you and the kids? You almost reached an inch of safety? Too bad about that! My need never ends, so why not take a second job for me while you’re at it? Really? Now this is merely an attitude, but surely this is not what’s meant. This is not moral either.

    Instead of creating charity, this is preventing charity. The charity of doing good. That can only come from your own, voluntary self-sacrifice, not of the receiver, but of the giver. When this is freely given there is a second part: that is the receiver is aware that this is a sacrifice that has real cost and therefore real meaning, and therefore can be certain that THEY the downtrodden have value, and is therefore not something owed but appreciated, and with the appreciation that comes from the heart – of your joint sacrifice, to mean to do the best for someone who valued you enough to give an unbidden favor. THis is one of the MOST foundational of all the downtrodden in my wide experience: that they feel hated, discarded, unvalued, unloved. But the State provides empty nourishment, hollow food. The State hates your guts by their every action in charity. They demonstrate daily how worthless they think you are, and demand groveling and compliant gratitude. This is a major part of how things get constantly worse until some ONE — a real person — intervenes, and not with MONEY. Who cares about g-d–n money when you’re dying? But with LOVE.

    The Government’s place is to stop all heart, all meaning, all value, and all appreciation: the things that bind a community and nation together. They replace it with widespread and terminal resentment, poverty and ill-use until now all charity has the same bad name, and the same bad feeling associated throughout the population. It takes a lot of work to get there, but they’ve spent trillions making it happen. Congratulations, now EVERYONE hates each other: both givers and takers, rich and poor alike.

    Is it really that hard not to use force and violence on everyone? Is it really that bad to ask?

    I guess for what it’s worth I give to charity relentlessly, and know many people who need or use it all my life. Very little helps as almost all problems are systemic, due to extraction, or are outside forces, like mental illness and disability. The only cure is a real community.

    Impossible to find any conclusion on Buffalo, I assume that means it was a lie. (Was it published? Then it was a lie.) Best I can see from pics, 3 feet in places? But 1 foot in the city itself? Well that’s not seven feet. I guess we’ll have to round down and call it a drought.

    You know, if they hadn’t called for seven feet I would have found 3 feet in 24 hours very impressive and worthwhile. Jut like calling for the end of the planet every 7 years for 35 years in a row.

    #121501

    I was just over at ticker and the word “thermodynamics” comes up- again. I recall there was some fancy guy (a rothschikeller?) who wrote something about thermodynamics being the whole model for any economy- but it’s on my old defunct computer.
    Given the conditions, ice melts or water freezes.
    Money is energy. So energy is money.
    Whence the word “currency”?

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